



















^■"■ 







tfi 






"t?. 






^ 









\^\ 




"^1 

V 



"^^ 



0* !"^B". -ov^^ :^^\ "-^^.^ 



"^ ' • • S - Y " 



^^ 



.0 








'vfj 












^> 



5' 












.'Jv^ 



CKKHlSiMaa^ 



/ .« » • ° 




^ 



^' 



^. 



^o 



f\. 



o\ 



^'^ 







^-^0^ 






^/ ^h 



^ 



40^ 






<?- * » N O 



^ :M^j 




^^ * o « ^ -^' 






.0^ 



o I' o 




'^5^/r???^ 



. ^. 






O^ 0°- 



THE GRAVES 



OP 



MYLES STANDISH 

AND OTHER PILGRIMS 



REVISED AND ENLARGED 

E. J. V. HUIGINN 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE AUTHOR 

BEVERLY. MASSACHUSETTS 

1914 



" ^* ^» 



-Did'H 



Copyright 



JAN-8I9!5 



(Q)G!,A:i!)1277 




mIc^ °q P^'"^^"g ^^o"^ which this is taken is owned in Plymouth 
1^ En^lanTfn^fS^. 7^^ as a picture of Standish made when he was 
the invln^nrv of V ^ ^; . ^^\^'^ '^^^f ^ '^' ^^ '^ ^^^ mentioned in 
hisdelth ^ ' ^^ "^^^ ^'^''''^ ^" ^"S^^^d ^°^g ^fter 



DEDICATION 

It is with great pleasure I dedicate this 
volume to Mrs. Russell Sage, who has very 
kindly granted me her permission to do so. 
Mrs. Sage is herself a descendant of Myles 
Standish of Plymouth. Mrs. Sage's father 
was Joseph Slocimi, who was the son of 
Olivia Josselyn, who was the daughter of 
Olivia Standish, who was the daughter of 
David Standish, who was the son of Thomas 
Standish, who was the son of Alexander 
Standish, who was the eldest surviving son 
of Captain Myles Standish. 

It is owing to Mrs. Sage's generosity that 
this book now appears. 

Though a stranger to the Pilgrims in 
many ways, I was not a stranger to them in 
sympathy, hope, and hfe, and I have always 
considered it a great happiness to have been 
able to add a little to what my predecessors 
had done in trying to preserve their memory. 
It was a work of affection, and I am glad to 
have the opportunity of dedicating this work 
to a descendant of the Captain of the Pil- 
grims, who is in herself an epitome of the 
highest ideals of the Plymouth forefathers. 

E.J.V.H. 



CONTENTS 



1 



PAGE 
CHAPTER I 

Where was Standish buried? Eight theories about the 
place 13 

CHAPTER II 

Mr. Justin Winsor's History of Duxbury and his hypoth- 
eses. Analysis of his evidence 17 

CHAPTER III 
Standish buried in Duxbury 29 

CHAPTER IV 

Location of first meeting-house and cemetery. Proofs 
from locations of roads, homesteads, etc. The homes 
of the first three ministers. Evidence from original 
documents 33 

CHAPTER V 

Original documents and first and second meeting- 
houses. Committee appointed to build second meet- 
ing-house. Second meeting-house built .... 54 

CHAPTER VI 

The theory about the Chandler farm. The first roads in 
Duxbury 66 

CHAPTER VII 
More about the roads. No highway to Chandler farm. 
Remains found on Chandler farm; of what evidential 
value 74 

CHAPTER VIII 
Two Cushman houses. Three Mrs. Cushmans. Dr. 
Wadsworth's testimony. The Ryder farm theory . . 82 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX PAGE 

The two triangular stones. The tradition about them 
as stated by Mr. Winsor and others. Witnesses to the 
tradition. Mrs. Ruth Standish Hall's testimony. 
Dr. John Wadsworth's testimony further considered. 
Value of his testimony 94 

CHAPTER X 

Mrs. Ruth Standish Hall and Benjamin Prior's testimony. 
The Prior tradition about Standish 's grave. The 
Brewster tradition. The Faunce tradition .... 109 

CHAPTER XI 

Original witnesses and their descendants 113 

CHAPTER XII 

The graves. Mr. Melzar Brewster and the Duxbury 
Rural Society. Mr. Brewster finds the triangular 
pyramids. Two graves opened and the remains of an 
elderly man and a young woman found. The first 
five deaths in Standish 's family. Five graves opened 
in 1891. Remains of five bodies found corresponding 
to first five deaths in Standish's family. Condition 
of remains. Remarkable formation of skulls . . . 118 

CHAPTER XIII 

The two girls and the two boys buried before Standish's 
death, Lora's age. "Plimoths great book." The 
two boys of the same name. Governor Bradford's 
evidence. Ages of Standish's children 130 

CHAPTER XIV 

Age of Josias Standish and his wife, Mary Dingley. 
The Dingley family. Mary's death 146 

CHAPTER XV 
Comphcations in dates explained 150 

CHAPTER XVI 

Captain Standish's age. Officer in English army — 
when? 152 

CHAPTER XVII 
Objections to our conclusions 155 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XVIII PAGE 

Mrs. Jane G. Austin's objections. When was Duxbury 
settled? 161 

CHAPTER XIX 

Mrs. Austin's objections. The remarkable triangular 
stones. Supposed destruction of Duxbury records. 
The first church in Duxbury — when built? The first 
church in Plymouth — when built? Elder Brewster 
never minister in Duxbury. Standish's grave and the 
Indians and Pequot War. John Alden's burial place. 
Major Alden's theory 172 

CHAPTER XX 

Elder Brewster and Mrs. Brewster. The Brewster Diary. 
Mrs. Brewster buried in Plymouth. The Elder's 
burial place. A remarkable grave in Duxbury . . 188 

CHAPTER XXI 

The Captain's will 193 

CHAPTER XXII 

Standish's religion 197 

CHAPTER XXIII 

Letters to the author 205 

CHAPTER XXIV 

Memorial at the Graves. List of subscribers and Treas- 
urer's report. Letters from the Navy Department. 
Standishes of Salem and Lynn and of Wethersfield, 
Connecticut. The reputed painting of the Captain 
in Plymouth, and its consequences if genuine and if 
dates are correct 209 

Standish's Grave — Before 216 

Standish's Grave— After 217-218 




REFERENCES FOR THE MAP 

A. Captain's Hill, site of Standish Monu- G. Bayley's Comer. 

ment. H. " "" ~ 

B. Mrs. Thomas Chandler's. K. 

C. Morton's Hole. L. 

D. George F. Ryder's. M. 

E. Graveyard where Standish is buried. 



Hall's Comer. 
Harden Hill. 

Present Graveyard in use since 1783. 
Mill Brook, on road to Duck Hill and 
Marshfield. 



THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 
AND OTHER PILGRIMS 



CHAPTER I 

I went to live in Duxbury, Massachusetts, 
in 1890. I was the first resident minister 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in that 
town, having accepted the charge of the 
Mission of St. John the Evangelist. Many 
of my parishioners were descendants of the 
Pilgrims, not a few claiming descent from 
Standish, and Brewster, and Bradford, and 
Alden, not to mention others. It was most 
interesting to me to find myself in such 
surroimdings. What would the good old 
Pilgrims have said to a resident Episcopal 
minister, and his black and white gowns, 
and book of prayer? I had a feeling that 
if they came back to Duxbury, they would 
not have treated me as a stranger, an out- 
sider. I loved them and the places they 
hallowed. You may call them religious rebels 
if you will, but even so, I felt strangely 
at one with them. 

It is not to be wondered at, then, that 
I tried in every way to gather the traditions 
and stories about the past glory of Duxbury, 



14 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

— ^for it certainly had a glorious past, — and 
to find all the traces possible of its original 
settlers, their homes, their meeting-house, 
their schools, and all other things pertaining 
to their life. It was very easy to locate 
the sites of the homes of Standish, Brewster, 
and Alden, and of others of the Pilgrims, 
but I must confess that my chief interest 
was in the three men I have named. 

One great drawback to all my pleasure 
in my surroundings was that no one could 
definitely point out to me the last resting- 
places of Duxbury's most famous men. I 
felt that their burial places could be located 
if proper steps were taken to do so, and I 
made up my mind to try and locate them. 
I lived in the home of Dr. Wilfred G. Brown, 
the only physician then resident in Duxbury, 
and now living in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 
Dr. Brown was quite as much interested as 
I was, and he helped me to collect traditions 
from some of his patients. Everywhere I 
went I almost became an interrogation point 
seeking for news about the Pilgrims. In 
this way I gathered many differing stories, 
but little in the way of proof. 

Having collected all I could from oral 
tradition, I got Justin Winsor's History of 
Duxbury and read it with the greatest care, 
watching closely for every reference to a 
cemetery, a meeting-house, public lands, 
highways, paths, boundaries of farms, especial- 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 15 

ly of those near the meeting-house grounds, 
and more especially of those of the first three 
ministers of Duxbury, Partridge, Holmes, and 
Wiswall, who held the ministry of the town 
of Duxbury from 1637 to 1700. 

The authority of Justin Winsor was 
final with, I daresay, most people. He was 
a Duxbury boy, became Librarian of Harvard 
College, and was one of the notable New 
England historians of his time. The Dux- 
bury people would not easily tolerate it, 
that a rank outsider after a short residence 
in town should try to overthrow Mr. Winsor' s 
statements. I knew this, and I resolved not 
to put myself in the attitude of antagonism 
to Mr. Winsor if I could possibly avoid so 
doing. 

From the various stories I had collected 
one had a choice of several places for 
Standish's grave. 

1. Some said he went to England, and 
died and was buried there. 

2. Some said he was buried in Con- 
necticut. 

3. Some said he was buried in Plymouth. 

4. Some said he was buried on his 
own farm. 

5. Some said he was buried at a place 
in Duxbury called Harden Hill. 

6. Some said he was buried on a farm 
owned by Mr. George Frank Ryder. 

7. Others said he was buried on a 



16 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

piece of land lying west of Morton's Hole 
Marsh and south of Border Street, on 
a little bit of land on the edge of the 
bay, which land belonged to Mrs. Thomas 
Chandler. 

8. Others, and these the ones likely 
to have the best information, said that 
Standish was buried in the old cemetery 
near Hall's Comer, and that the first meeting- 
house was there. 



CHAPTER II 

It is not surprising, then, that some 
people considered it hopeless to try and 
discover the real burial place of the Captain. 
If one were to get beyond guesses and prob- 
abilities, he would have to collect all the 
evidence from every source and let it tell 
its own story. So I began the task of ex- 
amining the evidence presented by Mr. Winsor 
in his History of Duxbury. 

Mr. Winsor says in his History, pages 53, 
176, 177, 179, 183:— 

**No stone marks the resting place of 
his ashes and we must seek in vain the place 
where reposes what was mortal of the im- 
mortal Standish. He was probably, however, 
buried on his farm, or perhaps in the old 
burying-groimd in that vicinity at Harden 
Hill." 

When speaking of the death of the 
Rev. Ralph Partridge, the first minister of 
Duxbury, Mr. Winsor says that he was 
* 'probably interred in the first burial place 
of the town which was a knoll in the south- 
eastern part at Harden Hill, as it is called. 
If any stones were ever placed here they 
have since been destroyed by the ravages 
of time or otherwise as none at the present 
time exist. Probably, however, none were 



18 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

erected, in hopes of concealing from the 
Indians their loss by death, and consequent 
weakness; or in the earliest periods the 
difficulty of procuring stones from England 
was so great that few if any could have 
been placed here. 

"This was probably used as a place of 
sepulture for about sixty years and here 
were doubtless buried most of the founders 
of the town and chtirch. Here probably 
rest the remains of Standish, Alden, Collier, 
Partridge and others, whose memory we 
delight to cherish but whose graves must 
forever remain tmknown. 

"We have the most positive evidence 
that there was a burying-ground here. Some 
years ago while a sloop was building in this 
vicinity, there were found the bones of a 
female and an infant buried together. About 
the close of the century a small sloop grounded 
on the marsh near by in a severe gale, and a 
party of workmen proceeded to get her off. 
While here they discovered in the bank 
lately washed by the sea, the appearance 
of a coffin, and on closer examination they 
perceived the nails, though all were in a 
very decayed state. On the shore beneath 
there were found three skulls and several 
bones, apparently of the thigh. The teeth 
in one were perfect and in one there were 
two. On one there was some light sandy 
hair. The bank here was washed away 



M 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 19 

some twenty feet within fifty years. Some, 
however, incline to the belief that this was 
an Indian yard, but the fact that it was near 
the first church and other considerations 
influence me to believe that it was an English 
burial place. There were, fifty or seventy 
years ago, traditional reports that there was 
a burying-ground a short distance to the west 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
Esquire Sprague, when plowing, used always 
on that account to leave undisturbed this 
portion. Major Alden was accustomed to 
observe that he believed John Alden, the 
Pilgrim, was buried here and that this was 
the first burying-groimd, and the one at 
Harden Hill cliff was an Indian one. How- 
ever, there is no positive evidence on this 
point either way. 

"Mr. Partridge preached in a very small 
building in the south-eastern part of the 
town near the water, and tradition now 
marks its site. This building probably stood 
for about seventy years and in it preached 
the first three pastors of the church." 

I would draw your attention to these 
extracts from Mr. Winsor's book. 

1. He says "we must seek in vain*' for 
Standish's burial place. 

2. He says that Standish "was probably 
buried on his farm or perhaps in the old 
burying-ground in that vicinity at Harden 
Hill." 



20 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

3. He says the first minister, Part- 
ridge was "probably interred in the first 
burial place of the town which was a knoll 
in the south-eastern part at Harden Hill/' 

4. He says that this Harden Hill burial 
place was used for about sixty years, and 
that "here were doubtless buried most of 
the foimders of the town and church. Here 
probably rest the remains of Standish, Alden, 
Collier, Partridge and others, whose memory 
we delight to cherish but whose graves must 
forever remain imknown.'* 

5. He speaks of some bones fotmd on 
the water-front of Harden Hill, as proof that 
a burial-place was there, and then says that 
some declared this to be an Indian burial 
place, but that he felt that, as "it was near the 
first church,*' it was an English burial place. 

6. He mentions the belief of Esquire 
Sprague about an ancient burial-place west 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
Major Alden 's belief that John Alden was 
buried here. This Methodist Episcopal 
Church is now the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. Before I left Duxbury I opened 
commimication with the presiding elder of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dis- 
trict in which Duxbury was situated, asking 
if the Methodist Church would dispose of 
their property in Duxbury to the Protestant 
Episcopal Mission in Duxbury, and I re- 
ceived a reply that the Methodists would 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 21 

gladly transfer the property on certain con- 
ditions and the payment of a nominal sum 
of twenty-five dollars. This arrangement was 
carried out after I left Duxbury. 

7. Mr. Winsor says there "is no positive 
evidence either way," as to whether there 
was an English burial place where Esquire 
Sprague and Major Alden located one, nor 
as to their beHef that the Harden Hill biuial 
place was an Indian one. 

8. Finally Mr. Winsor says that ''Mr. 
Partridge preached in a very small building 
in the south-eastern part of the town near 
the water and tradition now marks its site. 
This building probably stood for about seventy 
years and in it preached the first three pastors 
of the church." 

9. On page 183, Mr. Winsor says: 
"The Second church stood at the easterly 
end of this yard where its site is now 
identified, and was probably erected in the 
latter part of Mr. W.'s ministry," or, he adds, 
"somewhat later." As will be shown, we 
found the record of the building of this second 
church, and that it was "within three or four 
rods" of the first one. 

It is easily seen that Mr. Winsor had 
not much definite information concerning 
the first meeting-house and the first biuial 
place of the town. Very evidently he 
did not read the Duxbury and Plymouth 
records. 



22 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

You will remark that he says ''probably" 
Standish was buried on his farm, or ''perhaps** 
on Harden Hill, and again says, "probably** 
he was buried on Harden Hill and finally says 
the first church was near Harden Hill, and 
therefore there was a burying-ground there 
and an English one at that. Mr. Winsor*s 
facts and conjectures were hastily gathered 
when he was a yoimg man (about eighteen 
years of age) on his vacation in Duxbury. 
He had, at that time, no training in anti- 
quarian or archaeological researches, or he 
would have seen that in his own book he has 
the most convincing evidence to prove that 
all these conjectures are groundless as to the 
site of the old church and the old graveyard 
in Duxbury. 

Harden Hill lies on the south-easterly 
coast of Duxbury Bay, north of the creek 
known as Simmons* Creek, and opposite or 
nearly opposite the home of Mr. Ira Chandler, 
who lives on the Nook road. Harden Hill 
is at present occupied by Mr. William Free- 
man (whose place [A.D. 1892,] is owned by 
Mr. Theodore Freeman), Mr. Edgar Smith, 
Mr. Edward Marsh, Mr. GamaHel Wads- 
worth, and Mr. Calvin Smith. The very 
situation of this hill would show that the 
early settlers never would have selected it 
for the site of a church or for a graveyard. 
It was removed from every settler in the 
town. There was no public road to it; in 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 23 

all the records of public roads there is no 
mention of a road to Harden Hill, nor is 
there the least reference to a meeting-house 
there. Now if the meeting-house were there, 
there would be a public highway to it, for 
the meeting-house was used for all town 
meetings as well as for church piuposes. 
There is no reference in the deeds and records 
of the farms in that vicinity to a meeting- 
house as a boundary. The hill was altogether 
remote from the centre of population. The 
Nook people, in order to reach the meeting- 
house, would have to cross the marshes lying 
at the back of Mr. Sylvanus Sampson's, 
or they would have to go around by some 
public way. There is no public way men- 
tioned in any of the deeds of farms, or in any 
of the bounds of farms, recorded for those 
early times. Besides, the settlers whose farms 
are recorded as lying around the first meeting- 
house all lived round Hall's Comer, near 
what is known as the old cemetery on the 
road between Hall's Comer and Bayley's 
Comer. To place a meeting-house on a hill 
remote from all the settlers in all parts of the 
town would be an absiu^dity too great to lay 
to the sense of the distinguished men who 
foimded Duxbury and established a church 
here. All the settlers about the place known 
as Powder Point, and in all the other parts 
of the town aroimd John Alden's homestead, 
and around Mill Brook and Duck Hill, would 



24 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

object to putting a meeting-house in such an 
out-of-the-way place. 

As to the supposed graveyard at Harden 
Hill, there are no traces of any public grave- 
yard there. Excavations were made on the 
hill by several people, and there was not a 
trace of a graveyard, a common graveyard. 
According to Mr. Winsor, Harden Hill was 
used as a graveyard by the people of Duxbury 
for sixty years at least. That is, it was used 
as a graveyard imtil about 1690, A.D. There 
are public records that a large nimiber of 
people died in Duxbury before that time. 
Besides, the Wads worth records state that 
eighty-four persons had died in Duxbury up 
to 1688, A.D. Now it would be impossible 
to bury such a number of people in a grave- 
yard on Harden Hill and at this date find no 
trace of such a nimiber of graves. Again, 
it would be impossible for such a graveyard 
to be washed away by the sea and the people 
of the town not to know it. 

Every week the people were at their 
divine service ; over and over again they car- 
ried their dead there; frequently they must 
have visited the graves of their former friends; 
their town-meetings were held in the meeting- 
house, and all public business was transacted 
in it; for all these reasons and many others 
that will suggest themselves, the people of 
Duxbury would have had many and ample 
opportunities for observing the destruction 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 25 

of their graveyard by the tides, and such 
destruction coiild not have taken place with- 
out their knowledge. 

As to the bones that were found on Har- 
den Hill, the belief was that they were Indian 
bones, until Mr. Justin Winsor stated in his 
book that they were Caucasian bones, from 
the fact that this supposed graveyard **was 
near the first church.*' That it was not near 
the first church is absolutely certain, even 
according to Mr. Winsor*s facts. The founda- 
tion for his supposition is gone and the sup- 
position vanishes. 

It is not necessary that we should ac- 
count for the bones found on Harden Hill, 
for they do not in any sense correspond with 
what history, tradition, and Standish's own 
will, require to prove that they were the bones 
of the Standish family. However, there are 
many ways of accounting for these bones. 
They may have been Indian bones. They 
may have been the bones of what were known 
as praying Indians, that is of Indians who 
became Christians and lived on friendly terms 
with the colonists. They may have been 
the remains of some shipwrecked people. 
They may have been the remains of some 
people who for some reason were btu^ied on 
their own land; it is certain that this land 
was never town land in the sense that it was 
used for a public cemetery; it is also certain 
that it never belonged to Standish or any of 



26 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

his descendants. Indeed these remains may 
have been the remains of some negro slaves, 
for in the old days some slaves were owned in 
the town. It must be kept in mind that Diix- 
bury was at one time quite a sea-port, and 
that a line of wharves and ship-building 
establishments lined this coast, and that 
sailors came from many lands in the old days ; 
there was a wharf in more recent times at 
Harden Hill; it would be easy to find con- 
jectures enough to explain the presence of 
the remains foimd at Harden Hill. But it 
is hardly necessary to conjecture about them. 
The most likely thing of all is that these 
remains were of the several people who were 
executed in the town in its early years. 

Richard Bushup lived with Love Brew- 
ster. Richard Bushup was married on 5th 
December, 1644, to AHce Clark. This Alice 
Clark, wife of Bushup, was hanged in 1648 
for the murder of her child. 

Love Brewster seems to have had his 
share of undesirable people about him. A 
servant of his, Thomas Graunger, was hanged 
in 1642 for "a capital offence.*' 

John Drew, a Welshman and ship-car- 
penter, came to Plymouth; he had five 
sons, three of whom settled in Plymouth and 
two in Duxbury. Samuel, one of these sons, 
whose home was in Duxbury, having taken 
too much liquor while on board a shallop in 
1678, fell into the water and was drowned. 



■ AND OTHER PILGRIMS 27 

Besides, we know that there were Quakers 
in the town in 1660. We know that the 
second John Alden was accused of witchcraft. 
We know that there were reHgious dissenters 
in the town almost from the first days, that 
is, some who did not agree with the Pilgrims 
in their religious views. Later, there were 
Universalists. Over and above all these facts, 
it is certain that some people, "excommuni- 
cated** or otherwise separated from the local 
church, may have buried their dead in private 
places. Harden Hill may be one of these 
places. 

The bones found were the skeletons of a 
woman and a child buried with her, ''three 
skulls and several bones apparently of the 
thigh. The teeth in one were perfect, and 
in one there were two. On one there was 
some light sandy hair.'* The woman and 
the child may have been Alice Bushup, and 
her child. The other skulls were probably 
of the other persons who at various times 
were put to death or were buried apart 
for special reasons. There are, as I have 
said, records of three or four early executions. 
The swamp-encircled sand-hill would have 
been a retired place in which to bury such 
people. 

That these bones could not have been 
the remains of the Standish family is evi- 
dent. Neither Lora nor Mary Standish was 
buried with a child. These two yoimg women 



28 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

were buried near each other. The Captain 
was buried near them. All agree that they 
were buried in the graveyard attached to the 
church. Those who wotild bury the Captain 
at Harden Hill, or on the farm of Mrs. Thomas 
Chandler, claim that the first church was in 
one or the other place respectively. On Har- 
den Hill no two yoimg women were fotmd 
near an old man. No two remarkable pyra- 
midal stones were foimd marking the place. 
No tradition in the oldest families supported 
the notion that there ever were a graveyard 
and a church on Harden Hill. There never 
was a public road leading to Harden Hill, 
and the public roads all led to the meeting- 
house. There never was any town-land on 
Harden Hill. The church, and the pound, 
and the stocks, were always placed on the 
town-land and in a convenient place on the 
highways. The farms, boimded with ref- 
erence to the old church, are all located near 
Hall's Comer and towards Bayley's Comer 
around the old cemetery in that vicinity. 

We shall again refer to Mr. Winsor's 
great mistake in locating the meeting-house 
on Harden Hill, and out of his own book we 
shall prove his mistake. 



CHAPTER III 

Before proceeding farther in the examina- 
tion of the evidence for the hypothetical 
places of Standish's btirial, we shall eliminate 
all those places which have been mentioned 
except Duxbury. 

We know that Standish died between 
the 7th March, 1655, the date of his will, and 
the 4th May, 1657, when his will was ex- 
hibited in the court at Plymouth and recorded. 
We are told that Standish died on the 3d 
October, 1656. He could not have died be- 
fore 1656, for he was appointed one of the 
assistants to the governor that year. 

Captain Standish was a prosecutor 
against Richard Sparrow of Eastham, in a 
case set for 5th October, 1656, at Plymouth 
Court, according to the Old Colony records. 
Standish was acting in behalf of Elizabeth 
Hopkins. 

At his death in 1656 Standish was the 
chief military officer. He was "a man full 
of years and honored by his generation." 

Nathaniel Morton, the secretary of the 
Colony from 1645 to 1685, tells us of Standish: 
''He growing very ancient became sick of the 
stone or strangullion, whereof after his suffer- 



30 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

ing of much dolorous pain, he fell asleep in 
the Lord and was honorably buried at Dux- 
bury/* 

Nathaniel Morton was the son of George 
Morton who came in the Ann in 1623; George 
had married the sister of Governor Bradford. 
Nathaniel was bom in 1612 and died in 1685. 
He was secretary of the Colony for forty 
years. He was also secretary of the united 
colonies, the compiler of valuable church 
records, now in existence, from the origin of 
the Leyden church, and author of the New 
England Memorial. In a copy of the Me- 
morial in the library of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society and which belonged to 
Governor Prince, Mr. Prince wrote in the 
margin the following note, from which we 
determine the day of Standish's death, which 
is not recorded elsewhere. The portions in 
brackets are gone and are supplied from con- 
jecture. **In ye list at ye e[nd] of Gour. 
Bradford's MSS FoHo tis writ yt Capt. 
Standish died Oct. 3, 1655. But his son 
Wm*s Table Book says Oct. 3, 1656 and 
Capt. Standish being chosen assist[ant] in 
1656 showes that his death must [have oc- 
curred in this last year.]" 

From this evidence, and from Standish's 
will, and Governor Prince's copy of the 
Memorial, we see that Standish died in 1656, 
and from Morton's evidence we see that he 
was honorably buried in Duxbury. In his 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 31 

will he speaks of his burial place: "My will 
is that out of my whole estate my funeral 
charges to be taken out, and my body to be 
buried in a decent manner, and if I die in 
Duxburrow, my body to be laid as near as 
conveniently may be to my two dear daughters 
Lora Standish, my daughter, and Mary 
Standish, my daughter-in-law." History, 
written and traditional, records that Stan- 
dish was buried in Duxbury. 

That he was buried honorably is proved 
by the words of Nathaniel Morton, and 
by the position the Captain occupied at 
his death as the chief military officer of the 
Colony. There was no secrecy about the 
funeral. If he was, as Morton says, honor- 
ably buried, he must have been buried with 
due public pomp and ceremony and with 
manifestations of public sorrow. The notion 
that he was buried secretly on account of 
the Indians is the suggestion of those who 
believed that his grave could not be discovered. 
There was no necessity for concealing his 
death from the Indians. When Standish 
died the Indians were on friendly terms with 
the colonists. From 1637 to 1675 there was 
peace between the Indians and the settlers. 
At Standish 's death there was peace. The 
Indians must have known of his death. 
Many Indians resided in the town, and we 
know that in 1656 there were ''praying" 
Indians, that is believers in Christianity. 



32 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

But even granting that Standish was 
buried secretly on account of the Indians, 
how will this prove that the settlers them- 
selves, his brothers in arms, his friends, his 
neighbors, his children, did not know of 
his death and his last resting place? 

Standish speaks in his will of the burial 
place of his children as a well known place. 
He asks to be buried with them. Without 
doubt he was buried with them, and with due 
pomp. His old soldiers must have come 
to his funeral. The mothers of the Colony 
must have spoken of his death and burial 
place. They could not forget the brave 
man who so often risked his own life for 
theirs and their children's. 

Does anyone think that Morton would 
have said that Standish was honorably buried, 
if Morton knew that he had been secretly 
btuied? Would Morton not have mentioned 
that he was secretly buried when writing 
of the funeral? 



CHAPTER IV 

It is now plain that Standish was btiried 
in Duxbury, and we thus limit the question 
to the place in Duxbury. 

You will observe that Mr. Winsor says 
the first meeting-house in Duxbury stood for 
about sixty years, and in another place he 
says it stood for about seventy years. He 
says the first burying-place was near the first 
meeting-house, and he gives this as his 
argtmient for locating the first burying-place 
of the English colonists at Harden Hill. He 
says that the first three ministers, Partridge, 
Holmes, and Wiswall, preached in the first 
meeting-house. He says that Standish, Al- 
den, Collier, Partridge, and others of the 
colonists, were buried in the first graveyard 
near the first meeting-house. He locates 
the second church at the eastern comer of 
the cemetery near Hall's Comer. There are 
two of these statements which are not wholly 
correct. The first meeting-house stood for 
about seventy years, not sixty. This first 
meeting-house and the burying-groimd in 
its vicinity were not at Harden Hill, as we 
shall plainly show, even from Mr. Winsor's 
own book, but precisely where the records 
prove them to have been, between Hall's 
Comer and Bayley's Comer, where the graves 



34 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

are marked, and the site of the first meet- 
ing-house is designated by a boulder. The 
second meeting-house was within three or 
four rods of the first one. 

Had Mr. Winsor adverted to what he 
has on page 183 of his "History of Dux- 
bury," he would not have adopted the Har- 
den Hill theory. Speaking of the parsonage 
given to Mr. Wiswall in 1694, Mr. Winsor 
says: 'Tn 1694, we find the first mention of a 
parsonage when a committee was appointed 
to give Mr. W. a deed of the 'towne house, 
and the land he now lives on. At this time 
the town granted him half ye meadow called 
Rouse's meadow, yt belonged to ye ministry, 
to him and his heirs forever, and ye use of 
yt whole his lifetime.' The house above 
named was built by the Rev. John Holmes, 
on land he purchased of John Sprague, and 
was situated west of the road leading from the 
meeting-house into the Nook or Capt. Stan- 
dish's point, containing about five or eight 
acres. The house was afterward sold by 
Major William Bradford, who married the 
widow of Mr. Holmes, to the town." 

From the location of this house built by 
Mr. Holmes, it was easy for Mr. Winsor to 
perceive that this house lying west of the 
road leading from the meeting-house into 
the Nook, the meeting-house could not have 
been on Harden Hill. To reach the Nook 
from a supposed meeting-house on Harden 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 35 

Hill, you would have to go west until you 
met the road leading from the mill at Mill 
Brook to Morton's Hole. The main road 
was from the Nook to the mill, and a road 
running at right angles, or nearly so, would 
lead from this main road to the supposed 
meeting-house on Harden Hill. This latter 
would be the meeting-house road proper, for 
the one from the Nook to the mill was known 
as the road from the Nook to the mill. As 
a matter of fact the meeting-house was on 
the western side of the main road from the 
Nook to the mill, and so this road was also 
called the road from the meeting-house to 
the mill, and the road from the meeting- 
house to the Nook; it is also called in the old 
records the road from Morton's Hole ^ to 
Ducksburrow town. It took its designation 
indiscriminately from the three important 
places on it, the Nook, the meeting-house, 
and the mill. A farm west of the road lead- 
ing from the meeting-house to the Nook 
could not be at Harden Hill. Here then Mr. 
Winsor had proof that his conjecture, that for 
seventy years the first church was on Harden 
Hill, was wrong. 

On the same page of his History of Dux- 
bury, 183, Mr. Winsor continues directly 
after the words quoted: "At the same time 
they gave him (Mr. Wiswall) one half of 
Bump's meadow, and the old pasture bounded 
northeast by the before mentioned house 



36 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

lot, N. west by Mr. Ralph Thacher's home- 
stead; southwest by Morton's Hole marsh; 
and southeast by Thomas Boney's." It will 
be seen, then, that the homestead of Rev. 
John Holmes given by the town to Mr. 
Wiswall was the northeast boundary of this 
other piece of land given to Mr. Wiswall, 
which was bounded on the southwest by 
Morton's Hole marsh. By looking at the 
map of the town Mr. Winsor could have at 
once determined where Rev. Mr. Wiswall's 
home was, where Rev. Mr. Holmes' home 
was, and where the Rev. Mr. Partridge's 
home was. The three are mentioned in this 
paragraph giving the boundaries of this piece 
of land given to Mr. Wiswall. From the 
position of the marsh at Morton's Hole, and 
from the location of the two pieces of land 
given to Mr. Wiswall, one the Holmes home- 
stead, and the reference to the road from the 
meeting-house into the Nook as the eastern 
boundary of the above homestead, we can 
easily show that the meeting-house was not 
on Harden Hill. The evidence all proves 
that it was at the present old cemetery 
between Hall's and Bayley's Comers. 

Mr. Ralph Thacher, whose name is men- 
tioned in the last boundaries, was the grandson 
of Rev. Ralph Partridge, and occupied the 
homestead of his grandfather, which came to 
him through his mother, a daughter of Mr. 
Partridge. Mr. Partridge's will was exhibited 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 37 

in court the 4th May, 1658, by Mr. William 
Collier. He leaves all his landed estate, his 
homestead in Duxbury — ^in all 190 acres, — 
besides land he had purchased at Bridgewater, 
to his daughter Elizabeth Thacher and then 
to her second son, Ralph. Here we see the 
homes of the first three ministers. Partridge, 
Holmes, and Wis wall, almost beside the old 
cemetery, between Hall's and Bayley*s Cor- 
ners; Partridge's was adjoining the cemetery, 
and all of them west of the road nmning 
from the meeting-house to the Nook, and as 
we might say in the words of the record, 
lying "on the head of Morton's Hole." 

Now here was a meeting-house, in Mr. 
Holmes's time, placed not at Harden Hill, 
but on "the head of Morton's Hole," and 
here were the homes of the first three ministers 
lying west of the road going from the meet- 
ing-house to the Nook. I need not dwell 
upon the likelihood that the minister's home 
would be near the meeting-house. But it 
is not necessary to dwell on conjectures and 
likelihoods. We prefer to deal with facts. 

If the meeting-house were at the "head 
of Morton's Hole" in Mr. Holmes's time, and 
he died in 1675, it is at once certain that it 
was not for seventy years at Harden Hill. 

It is certain that in 1630, if not before 
that time, some of the chief Pilgrims had 
come to live in Duxbury. Some say that they 
had come to Duxbury as early as 1626 or 1627. 



38 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

The Aldens claim that the first Alden 
house in Duxbury was built in 1627, and 
they have erected a tablet of that date on 
the supposed site. However, be this as it 
may, it is generally agreed that a settlement 
was made in Duxbury in 1630. In the 
winter time the settlers returned to Plymouth. 
The following document throws light on the 
point : 

"Ano 1632 ) The names of those which 

Aprell 2 J promise to remove their f am- 

[ilies] to live in the towne in the winter time, 

that they m[ay] the better repair to the 

worship of God. 

John Alden, 
Capt. Standish, 
Jonathan Brewster, 
Thomas Prence.'* 
The removal to Plymouth in the winter 
was not required a year or two later. *Tn 
the year 1632, a nimiber of the brethren 
inhabiting on the other side of the bay, at 
a place since called Duxborough, growing 
weary of attending the worship of God from 
such distance asked and were granted a 
dismission." All agree that about this time 
the people of Duxbury were released from 
the obligation of attending service in Plym- 
outh. There was not a settled pastor in 
Duxbury until Rev. Ralph Partridge came 
in 1637. We know that Mr. Partridge came 
to Duxbury in 1637, for there is a deed of 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 39 

land to him dated 1637, June 29th. He came 
from England in 1636, landing in November. 
The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers of Ipswich came 
in the same ship. They were twenty-four 
weeks on the water. The first church was 
built in Duxbury between 1632 and 1638. 

This first meeting-house, Mr. Winsor 
says, stood for about seventy years, and in 
it ministered the first three pastors. But 
Mr. Winsor is not certain of its location, nor 
is he absolutely certain when the second was 
built. It was built a few years after Mr. 
Wiswall's death, as we shall see. All agree 
there was but one church before the one 
built in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Tradition and history are at one in 
saying that the church built at the old 
cemetery in the beginning of the eighteenth 
century was the second church built in the 
town. 

From continual references to the meeting- 
house it will be seen that there was a 
meeting-house in the town as early as 1638, 
A.D. 

In the year 1638 it was recorded that A. 
Sampson was presented to the court ''for 
striking and abusing John Washburn, the 
yotmger, in the meeting-house on the Lord's 
day.'' 

In 1641 there were eight churches in 
Plymouth Colony and the Duxbury church 
was one of them. 



40 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

In 1651 Nathaniel Bassett and Jo. Prior 
were fined twenty shillings each for disturb- 
ing the church, ''and at the next town meet- 
ing or training day, each to be bound to a 
post for two hours in some pubHc place, 
with a paper on their heads, on which their 
crime was to be written in capital letters." 

In 1652 George Russell was fined for not 
attending church in "the liberties" of Dux- 
bury. 

In 1666 Edward Laud, John Cooper, 
and John Simmons were fined ten shillings 
each for "prophane and abusive carriages, 
each toward the other on Lord*s day at the 
meeting-house. ' ' 

In 1669 "it was enacted that any person 
or persons that shall be found smoking of 
tobacco on the Lord's day, going to or com- 
ing from the meetings within two miles of 
the meeting-house, shall pay twelve pence 
for every such default for the colony's use." 

In 1670 the meeting-house is mentioned 
in the boundaries of Joseph Prior's land. 

In 1672 the meeting-house is mentioned 
in the bounds of Rev. Mr. Holmes's land. 

In 1684 on the 10th September Joseph 
Prior, Junr, was paid one shilling for mending 
the pulpit door. 

In 1686 Rhodolphus Thacher was paid 
ten shillings for sweeping the meeting-house. 

In 1690 Deacon Wadsworth received ten 
shillings for sweeping the meeting-house. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 41 

In 1692 Mr. Wadsworth received ten 
shillings for sweeping the meeting-house. 

In 1692 Mr. Southworth's bill was bal- 
anced for repairing Mr. Wiswall's house and 
for glassing the meeting-house. 

In 1693 Mr. Wadsworth was paid fifteen 
shillings for sweeping the meeting-house. 

In 1694 it is mentioned in the boimdaries. 
of Mr. Wiswall's land. 

In 1698 on the 23d May, the selectmen 
were ordered to have the gutters of the- 
meeting-house repaired. 

In 1699 the meeting-house is mentioned 
in the boundaries of Joseph Chandler's land. 

In 1706 on Thursday, the 21st Febru- 
ary, the town gave liberty to Benjamin 
Prior to remove the fence between the 
meeting-house and his own house, up to- 
the road. 

In 1705-6, the 20th March, the town- 
meeting was adjourned to the 3d April follow-^ 
ing to consider some way to raise fimds for 
repairing and enlarging their meeting-house. 

In 1 706 on the 3d of April it was resolved 
to build a new meeting-house. 

All these evidences, and others might be 
added, prove that there was a meeting-house 
in the town from 1638 at least. Finally it 
became so out of repair and so inadequate 
to accommodate the people that they decided 
to consider how to repair and enlarge it, and 
voted to sell it and build a new one. 



42 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

From what has been said it is clear that 
the meeting-house was north of Morton's 
Hole. The direction of the highways and 
the location of the farms already mentioned 
place the meeting-house in that place. Now 
it makes no difference whether you assert 
there was only one, or whether there were two, 
or three, or more, churches built before 1706-7. 
The deeds of farms and the records of the 
roads locate the meeting-house, whether it 
was the first, or second, or third, or 
any other nimiber, north of Morton's Hole. 
Around it were the farms and homes of the 
ministers from the beginning as we shall now 
see. 

And first of all as to Mr. Partridge. 

Mr. Partridge's land was granted to him 
around Morton's Hole. He was minister 
of the town, and it was right and natural 
that his land should be near the meeting- 
house, and this was so. In the Plymouth 
Colony Records in the book of Deeds, we find 
the following entry: 

**We whose names are hereunder written, 
by order of Mr. Thomas Prince and Mr. 
William Collier assistant, have measured and 
layed out ten acres of arable land lying on 
the head of Morton's Hole, viz., one acre 
in breadth and ten acres in length lying in a 
square, the south side butting upon the 
garden plot of Edward Hall, the west 
side running into Christopher Wadsworth's 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 43 

lot, the east side upon the highway and the 
north side upon the common ground, which 
we allotted and have layed out for Mr. Ralph 
Partridge, the 30th of December, 1637. 

Jonathan Brewster, 
Stephen Tracye, 
Christopher Wadsworth.'* 
From this we know that Mr. Partridge's 
land was east of Christopher Wadsworth's, 
west of the road from the Nook to the Mill, 
and south of the common lands. The records 
of the town tell us that some of the common 
land lay near where the old burying ground 
is, between Hall's and Bayley's Comers. We 
know, too, that Mr. Partridge built his home 
there, for in the boundaries of the land given 
to Rev. Mr. Wiswall, of which we have 
already spoken, there is mention of Ralph 
Thacher's homestead as the north-western 
boimdary of the land bounded on the north- 
east by the house lot of Rev. John Holmes, 
and on the south-west by Morton's Hole 
marsh. Mr. Thacher, having inherited his 
grandfather's property in Duxbury, lived here 
for some time, but was afterward ordained 
minister in charge of a parish elsewhere. Mr. 
Partridge's homestead, then, was near the 
church and the churchyard at the head of 
Morton's Hole. 

Mr. Partridge bought several pieces of 
land around this plot of ten acres assigned 
to him by the town. In the Old Colony 



44 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Records, Deeds, Volume 1, page 216, there 
is a record of land that Partridge bought of 
Job Cole in 1651. This land lay against 
Morton's Hole. Again on page 96 it is stated 
that he bought land of Christopher Wads- 
worth in 1643; this land lay north of Job 
Cole's land. Again on page 54 we are told 
that in 1639 he bought twenty acres of land 
of William Latham. 

In the records of June 29, 1637, we are 
told that William Bassett and Francis Sprague 
both sold land to Ralph Partridge. The 
book of Deeds says the above two parcels 
of land are bounded "to the land of the said 
Francis Sprague to the south; to the land 
of the said Wm. Bassett to the east; to the 
houselot of Mr. William Leverich now layed 
forth for him to the north; toward the land 
of Christopher Wads worth to the west." On 
Sept. 7, 1637, at page 25 in Plymouth 
Colony Records, Deeds, it is said that 
William Bassett gave to "Raph Partrich" 
of "Ducksburrow" land, which by word of 
mouth he had given to William Leverich at 
Duxbury. 

These parcels of land we see were also 
near Hall's Comer, being a part of Sprague' 
and Bassett's land at that place. They lay 
near Morton's Hole. 

It is well to observe that the land given 
to Mr. Partridge by the town, and the land 
he bought of Sprague and Bassett, were 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 45 

bounded by Christopher Wadsworth's land 
on the west. 

From the record it would seem to me, 
that there was not any meeting-house when 
this land was "layed out" by Brewster, 
Tracye, and Wadsworth, for Mr. Partridge, 
the first minister of the Duxbtuy church. 
It was "layed out" on the 30th December, 
1637. It was "on the head of Morton's 
Hole." Its west side ran into Christopher 
Wadsworth's lot. The east side was on the 
highway. The north side was on the common 
grounds. In the later records of lands "layed 
out" to Mr. Holmes, to Mr. Wiswall, and 
others, the highway above referred to is the 
public highway leading from the meeting- 
house, over to Mill Brook, and down to the 
Captain's Nook. In the old days there was 
a gate, which is spoken of in the records, at 
the opening of the Nook, and without doubt 
it was the part of the road, within the gates, 
on the property of Standish and Brewster, 
which these two men were obliged to keep 
in repair, as the town refused to do so, and 
this road within the gates was only for their 
own use, as the Plymouth Records state. 
The part of the road between the meeting- 
house and the "gate of the Nook," was public 
property, as the public used it to reach the 
mouth of Morton's Hole, where a fishing- 
weir had been placed by order of the town 
in 1639. 



46 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

We cite the record for the road within 
the gate of **the Noock." It is recorded in the 
Plymouth Colony Records, page 98, when 
Thomas Prince was Governor, in 1638, ''where- 
as there was a highway laid forth through 
Captain Standish and Mr. William Brew- 
ster's ground on the Duxburrow side, which 
is not of use for the country and they do 
therefore refuse to repair the same, the said 
Captain Standish and Mr. Brewster do under- 
take to repair the said way and it to be only 
for their own use." 

The land of Job Cole having been re- 
ferred to, it may be said that Job Cole lived 
beside Morton's Hole. We have seen that 
Partridge bought some land from him. Mr. 
Cole, having removed to Eastham, sold to 
Christopher Wadsworth on August 13, 1651, 
*'a house and land lying against a place 
called Morton's Hole," the meadow and fen- 
cing, etc., Plym. Col, Records — Deeds, p. 216. 

The land of Edward Hall, mentioned as 
the southern boundary of the ten acres as- 
signed to Partridge, was sold to William 
Wetherell on January 24, 1638. Wetherell 
paid Hall twenty pounds for his house and 
garden of two acres "lying between Ralph 
Partridge and Nicholas Robbins." Plym. 
Col. Rec, p. 41. 

From all these deeds and farm botmd- 
aries we can locate with considerable ac- 
curacy the relative position of the farms of 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 47 

Wadsworth, Sprague, Bassett, Robbins, Part- 
ridge, Hall, and the others mentioned in 
these deeds. We can locate Partridge's home 
better than any of the others. 

We have already seen where the Rev. 
John Holmes had his home, which was the 
house afterwards given by the town to Mr. 
Wiswall in 1694. There is a record that the 
town spent £21 repairing this house in 1693. 
This house was situated, as we have seen, 
on the head of Morton's Hole, but west of 
the road leading from the meeting-house into 
the Nook, and was built by Mr. Holmes 
when he came as minister in 1658. 

In the preceding records we have fre- 
quent references to the meeting-house from 
1638 to 1707. This is a period of sixty-nine 
years, in round numbers, seventy years. 

To find these references was not an easy 
task. From my experience with Mr. Winsor's 
quotations from the records, I felt con- 
vinced that there must be many references 
to the meeting-house and to the roads leading 
to it in the boundaries of farms, in the old 
records of Duxbury and Plymouth, references 
that had either never been sought or com- 
pletely overlooked. I went to Mr. George 
H. Steams, the clerk of the town of Duxbury, 
and asked if I might have the liberty to read 
the old records of the town. This was 
readily granted. I read these records for 
the first one hundred years, and copied out 



48 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

all the references I could find to the meeting- 
house, the public roads, the boundaries of 
farms with reference to the meeting-house, 
the meeting-house grounds, the homes of the 
first three ministers, and all other matters 
I thought might shed light on the subject 
in hand. It was thus I found many of the 
references used in the effort to locate Stan- 
dish's burial place. 

I next went to Plymouth and followed 
up the early records there in the same man- 
ner, finding helpful material there as well as 
in Duxbury. 

I may be permitted to say that the town 
clerk of Duxbury told me that I was the only 
person he knew who ever had taken the 
trouble thoroughly to examine the old records 
of Duxbury. 

It may not be out of place to say that 
the old books of records of Duxbury were in 
a bad shape when I saw them. Indeed, 
it is a wonder the books were in existence. 
No care was taken to keep them in a dry or 
fire-proof place, and yet these records were 
and are of the greatest interest to all New 
England, and, indeed, to all who are interested 
in the beginnings of a nation. I brought the 
matter to the attention of the next town- 
meeting and urged the necessity of having 
the old records — some of them like little 
''pass-books," or pocket record-books, which 
I fotmd full of dampness and decay, — ^placed 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 49 

in the hands of properly skilled persons with 
a view to treatment for their preservation. 
I also lu-ged a fire-proof vault for the records. 
The old records, when I first saw them, were 
kept in a small, plain wooden box. The 
town-meeting voted $300.00 to have parts of 
the old records copied, and ordered that 
steps be taken to have the old books treated 
for preservation and kept in a safe place. I 
was asked to take charge of these matters, 
but requested that some others be associated 
with me. Very soon we had some of the 
records in the hands of a copyist, and at 
least parts of his copies were printed. A 
safe was provided, and the old records are 
now in a secure place. 

In the Duxbury Records, I fotmd the 
following, at page 223, date 24 June, 1670, 
in the small vellum-bound book: ''Whereas, 
the town have appointed Mr. Constant South- 
worth and Phillip Delano, and WilHam 
Pabodie to bound men's lands, We the above 
named, have ranged and bounded out unto 
Joseph Prior, ten acres of land lying between 
or beyond or towards the mill on the fresh 
marshes, as you go from the meeting-house 
to the mill, that path being the boimds on 
the East side," etc. 

This record is subscribed, 'Transcribed 
by me, William Pabodie, Clark." 

The value of this record is to show that 
there was a meeting-house in 1670, — although 



50 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

this has already been proved, — and that the 
road from the meeting-house to the mill 
was the Eastern boundary of this land. 
This is the same road mentioned in the 
following record of 24th June, 1672, in the 
same volume which reads: — 

"Whereas Mr. Constant Southworth, 
Phillip Dillano, Senior, and Will. Pabodie were 
appointed by the town to bound out more 
lands, we the above named have bounded 
out to Mr. John Holmes ten acres of land 
bounded on the south by land of Joseph Prior 
and on the east end by the path that goes 
from the meeting-house to the mill and two 
marked trees, on the north side one white 
oak tree which stands about sixteen rods from 
the path and a pine tree 6 [rods] in the 
woods." The words before the last three are, 
I think, contractions for ''six rods." The 
copyist of the Duxbury Records reads "and 
a pine tree up in the woods," etc. The points 
to be observed in these records are: (1) 
that the meeting-house was in 1672 on a road 
passing to the mill; (2) that this road ran 
north and south, or else it could not have 
been the eastern boundary of the land given 
to Holmes. From this we easily conclude 
that the road referred to here is the road 
spoken of in 1637 as running from "Morton's 
Hole to Ducksburrow Towne." We know 
that the mill stood on Stony or Mill Brook, 
and that the road running north and south 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 51 

in 1672 to the mill from the meeting-house 
was the old road of 1637. Then the location 
of Joseph Prior's farm at this place absolutely 
determines the location of Mr. Holmes's 
grant. Mr. Holmes died in 1675, three 
years after this reference to the meeting-house, 
and he was buried in the old graveyard at 
the meeting-house. 

Already we have seen that Mr. Wiswall 
lived near Morton's Hole. From all these 
facts concerning the first three ministers, 
we know that they all lived near Morton's 
Hole, near the old cemetery, and naturally 
we would expect that they were near the 
meeting-house. All the facts prove this to 
have been so. We know that Wiswall was 
buried in the old cemetery, his tombstone 
being still well preserved. Holmes was buried 
in the old cemetery, Justin Winsor says. He 
says the same of Standish, Alden, and Part- 
ridge. Mr. Winsor being evidently wrong 
in his location of the first church, would, 
without doubt, grant that Standish, Alden, 
Partridge, Holmes, and all the other im- 
portant men of the town, who were buried 
here, were buried in the cemetery where- 
ever it was. He and all of us agree it was 
near the first church. From his own book 
we can prove that the first church was not 
at Harden Hill, but north of Morton's Hole. 
Therefore, Partridge was buried there. 

Mather in his Magnalia tells us that 



52 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Partridge died in Dtixbiiry, and we learn the 
same from all sources. 

We shall quote from the record of a 
grant of land, which is recorded in the hand- 
writing of Alexander Standish, the 17th day 
of February 1699-700, and in which the 
meeting-house is mentioned. "Whereas for- 
merly a tract of land was granted by the 
town of Duxburrow to Joseph Chandler, 
lying between the meeting-house road and 
Plymouth road, and was laid out to him 
but now no record to be found of it, we 
ensigne John Trasie, Thomas Delano and 
Abraham Sampson, being desired by Joseph 
Chandler, have layed out unto him twenty 
acres of land more or less bounded on the east 
by the meeting-house path to a red oak tree 
marked on four sides, and from said tree by 
a west southwest line to a pine tree which is 
the corner mark of the town's land and from 
the pine tree by the same line a range of 
trees marked until we come to a cart road 
where we marked a red oak sappling and then 
bounded by said path unto Plymouth road 
and by said road to the land of said Joseph 
Chandler and so by Joseph Chandler's line 
to the meeting-house path, this 17th day of 
February, 1699-700. 

Alexander Standish, Town Clerk. 
John Trasie, 
Thomas Delano, 
Abraham Sampson." 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 53 

The value of this record is to prove the 
location of the meeting-house on a road 
running north and south, and that this road 
was the eastern boundary for the land given 
to Joseph Chandler. This record, taken in 
connection with the location of Joseph Chand- 
ler's "lotted" land and the Plymouth road, will 
give us an idea of the situation of the land 
lying between ''the meeting-house road and 
the Plymouth road." It is very plain then 
that the meeting-house path here mentioned 
could not have been one going to Harden 
Hill. This deed refers to a time before the 
second church or meeting-house was built. 



CHAPTER V 

From all these different facts we con- 
clusively prove that the first meeting-house 
was, in fact all meeting-houses were, if 
you suppose two or more to have been in 
existence before 1706-7, located at the old 
cemetery. But we have still stronger and 
greater evidence. 

On Thursday, the 7th of May, 1891, I 
was examining landmarks about the old 
cemetery in connection with the grave of 
Standish. I saw evident signs of two church 
sites on the ground. 

I was not then so much surprised as 
pleased when I found the following entries 
in the old town records: — 

"At a town's meeting in Duxborough 
March, ye 20th 170 5-6 ye said meeting was 
adjourned to the third day of April next to 
consider of some way of raising of money 
to defray charges of repairing and enlarging 
their meeting-house either by selling some 
part of their common lands or by rate and also 
any other business that concerns said town." 

"April ye 3d anno 1706 at a town meet- 
ing in Duxborough, ye said town chose Mr. 
Seabtiry town treasurer, ye selectmen also 
appointed Mr. Seabury a viewer and gager 
of casks. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 55 

"At this town's meeting ye said town 
agreed and voted to build a new meeting- 
house forty foot long and thirty-three foot 
wide and seventeen foot high in ye walls 
and that the said meeting-house shall be 
set up within three or four rods of the old 
meeting-house now in being ye said town 
also ordered that some part of their common 
lands should be sold to raise money to de- 
fray charges about building ye said meet- 
ing-house. These persons whose names are 
subscribed did protest against ye aforesaid 
order of selling ye town's comon land for 
defraying ye charges about building ye said 
meeting-house. 

Lieut. Francis Barker, 

Robert Barker, 

Josiah Barker, 

Samuel Barker, 

Jabesh Barker, 

John Russel, 

Francis Barker, Jimr.'* 
The meeting was adjourned from the 
3rd April 1706 to the next Wednesday at 
12 of the clock. This is the record of that 
meeting: — 

"April 10, 1706 at a town's meeting in 
Duxborough the said town voted to chuse 
two agents and chose Cpt. Arnold and Mr. 
John Partridge to act for them ye said town 
on their accoimt and at their charge in build- 
ing their new meeting-house already voted 



56 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

to be built, that is to say, to agree and bar- 
gain with a workman or workmen to build 
the said meeting-house and also to provide 
whatsoever is necessary for the said building. 

^'The town also voted that the comon 
lands lying on the south-westerly side of 
the old Bay Rhoad yt goes from the North 
river to Mile Brook that runs into Black- 
water and so down to ye heads of the lots 
and also the town lands on the easterly side 
of ye said Bay Road lying between Mile 
brook nmning into Pudding brook and Philips 
brook should be sold to defray the charges 
of building the new meeting-house that is 
to say so much of ye said comon lands as is 
needful. Ye said town also voted to chuse 
three agents to act for them in selling the 
said comon lands and chose Cpt. Arnold, 
John Partridge and Thomas Loring." 

"At a town's meeting in Duxborough 
Feb. 25, anno 170 6-7 Ye said town gave 
liberty to Benjamin Prior to remove his 
fence between ye meeting-house and his own 
house up to ye road and so for a time use 
that part of ye town comons provided that 
he keeps up ye boimds where his former 
fence stood, ye said town also chose Capt. 
Arnold and John Partridge their agents to 
sell ye old meeting-house but not to deliver 
it before ye new meeting-house is finished 
and excepting men's particular rights therein." 

''At a town's meeting in Duxborough 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 57 

upon the 16th of February anno dom. 170 
7-8 at this town meeting ye said town voted 
to give Mrs. Wiswall the ten pounds in money 
due to ye said town from Benjamin Prior 
in part for the old meeting-house in payment 
for part of a years salary due to Mr. Wiswall 
deceased which was never rated for." 

From the foregoing records we gather: — 

(1) That there was a church, an old 
chtirch, one needing repairs and enlargement,, 
standing next to Benjamin Prior's land. 

(2) That a new church was built within 
three or four rods of the old one. 

(3) That both churches were on the 
ground at the same time, as the old one was 
not to be delivered imtil the new one was 
ready for occupation. 

(4) That the records speak of the 
chtirch sold to Benjamin Prior, as for sale 
in February 1706-7, and of its sale in February 
1707-8. The new meeting-house must have 
been built at this time and the following 
record proves this: ''Reckoned with ye town 
agents Feb'y ye 25th anno 1707. Then 
received of said agents the simi of one hun- 
dred and eighty pounds in full for building 
ye meeting-house in Duxbury. I say re- 
ceived by me, Samuel Sprague." This build- 
ing stood imtil June 7, 1785. 

These records prove how correct was 
my conclusion, that two churches were located 
at the old cemetery on different sites at 



58 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

some past time, and we see that there were 
two such churches within three or foiir rods 
of each other. So much being proved, dis- 
poses at once and forever of all suppositions 
of the first church, or any church before 
1706, having stood elsewhere than at the 
cemetery between Hall's and Bayley's Cor- 
ners. 

It will be borne in mind that when 
Plymouth and Duxbury, through the com- 
mittees appointed from both towns, tried 
to agree on some site, other than Plymouth, 
for the building of a church and town for 
greater strength and protection by the imion 
of all, seven members of the joint com- 
mittee voted to locate the church and town at 
Jones' river and two voted for Morton's Hole. 

These committees were appointed by 
the Old Colony court on the 2nd of March, 
1635-36, and on the 21st of March, 1635- 
36, the committees met and voted as above. 
Morton's Hole was so called from a large 
hole in the flats to the west of Captain's 
Hill, almost behind Mr. Ira Chandler's house. 
The vicinity aroimd this was the site in- 
tended for the new town. 

Morton's Hole Creek was there to supply 
them with water. Captain's Hill was there 
as a stronghold; and the people of Duxbury 
undoubtedly built their church there, perhaps 
having in view the possibility of a later union 
with Plymouth at this very place. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 59 

The upholders of the Harden Hill theory 
had not any facts, but they had the authority 
of Mr. Justin Winsor. Mr. Winsor's author- 
ity has been shaken, and his theory about 
Harden Hill falls to the ground. 

It seems altogether certain to me from 
the record of this meeting about the possible 
removal of the Plymouth people to Kingston 
or Duxbury, and from the coming of Mr. 
Partridge in 1637, and from the Manuscript 
Records of the Plymouth Chtirch, which 
state that the people of Duxbury, being 
''united into one body," called the Rev. 
Mr. Partridge as their minister, that there 
was no meeting-house built in Duxbury imtil 
1637-1638. All the evidence proves this. 
It is certain that there was no new meeting- 
house built between 1638 and 1706. There 
is not even a hint of such in any of the records, 
while there are references to the repairs in 
the meeting-house. If a new meeting-house 
had been built between 1638 and 1706, there 
would, without question, be some report of 
the sale of lands to meet the expense, 
or of some means of raising money for the 
purpose. We must keep in mind that the 
first meeting-house in Plymouth was built 
in 1637. 

It will be of interest to give copies of a 
few more records which have references to 
the meeting-house. 

In the book of records marked A, page 



60 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

191, there is a record on the 24th January, 
1709, referring to a deed between John 
Robinson and Ichabod Wadsworth concern- 
ing land ''on west side of the path which 
leads from the meeting-house over the south 
river to the four mile Hill." 

From the known location of John Rob- 
inson's land afid Ichabod Wadsworth's, it is 
plain that the meeting-house was located 
where we have proved it to have been. Of 
course this record of 1709 refers to the new 
meeting-house built in 1707, but as this 
was "within three or four rods" of the old 
meeting-house, the value of the record is 
just as great as evidence that Harden Hill 
could not have been the site of the first 
meeting-house, which all agree stood for 
about seventy years. 

John Robinson was the minister called 
to succeed Mr. Wis wall. There is a record 
of July, 1701, stating that the town was 
considering the question of a convenient site 
for a parsonage for the new minister. 

Another record that is of interest is the 
following, dated 30th June, 1714, and relating 
to the division of" some lands between Ben- 
jamin Peterson and John Wadsworth. '*We 
began at a stone pitched in the ground in 
the fence within four or five foot of the foot- 
path that goeth directly from the sd Jno. 
Wad worth's house to the meeting-house, viz., 
in y® fence that is now the partition fence 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 61 

between us the said Benjamin Peterson and 
John Wads worth, and from said stone run- 
ning North 34 degrees westerly upwards to a 
pine tree marked and then on the same line 
or course by a range of marked trees to a 
stake and stones by the highway that leads 
from Duxborough's meeting-house to Ply- 
mouth. Then we came back to the first 
mentioned stone pitched in the fence and run 
from thence downwards south thirty-six de- 
grees easterly to another stone pitched in 
the ground on the brow of an hill and from 
thence on the same course through the swamp 
to a stake pitched in the salt marsh and from 
thence still the same course down into a 
creek called Morton's Hole in presence of 
us witnesses : 

Christopher Wadsworth, 

his c mark. 

Mary Sampson 

her ^ mark. 

Benjamin Peterson 

his -^mark. 

John Wadsworth.** 
This record is dated in 1714. The value 
of this as evidence is the reference to the 
meeting-house. It speaks of **the foot-path 
that goeth directly from John Wadsworth's 
house to the meeting-house." It is evident 
that the boundary laid out was one running 
north and then westerly imtil they reached 
the highway leading from Duxborough meet- 



62 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

ing-house to Plymouth; then the boundary- 
ran in a southerly direction, and then easterly 
by certain local marks of a stone, a swamp, 
and a stake in the salt marsh, and from 
thence still the same course, that is, easterly, 
down into Morton's Hole Creek. 

I adduce this record not as necessary 
to prove the location of the meeting-house, 
but as confirmatory of what we have brought 
forward in relation to its location. This 
record would refer to the meeting-house 
built in 1707. As we have already seen, 
it was within three or four rods of the first 
meeting-house, and was ready for occupancy 
before the one sold to Benjamin Prior was 
delivered to him for removal. 

On pages 97, 98, etc., in the Book A of 
the Duxbury Records, the following records 
are foimd: — 

''We, the subscribers, selectmen of the 
town of Duxburough, have settled the bounds 
of several highways within said town as 
followeth, viz: Inprimis we began in the 
Captain's Nook at the fence, which is the 
partition between the farms of Miles Standish 
and Thomas Delano, Junr, near a red oak 
tree marked a little within the said Standish's 
land, thence running near north to two 
rocks about half a foot assunder near the 
range between Dea. Brewster and the said 
Delano, thence on a straight line to the 
southerly comer of the fresh meadow lot of 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 63 

Benjamin Bartlett Junr, thence to the north- 
west corner of the said meadow lot, thence as 
the way now goes to the fence standing about 
fifteen feet to westward of the biggest bam 
on the farm of Samuel Bartlit, Deed., thence 
straight to a heap of stones on a rising spot, 
or knoll of land on the eastward side of the 
path that leads out of said nook, thence straight 
to a heap of stones nigh the comer of Israel 
Silvester's fence and the way now goeth up 
out of the nook opposite against a ditch or 
place gulled away by the rain down into 
Mrs. Wiswall's land, thence up to another 
stone pitched in the groimd in sd Silvester's 
fence where he turns down to his house 
thence still upwards on a straight line to 
the south-westerly corner post of sd Sil- 
vester's leantoo adjoining to his bam, thence 
on a straight line to a stone in his fence, 
viz. still upward straight from the last men- 
tioned stone still upward as sd Silvester's 
fence now goes till it comes to the land of 
Christopher Wadsworth, thence to a stone 
pitched in the ground which is the southeast 
comer between the land of Christopher Wads- 
worth and Benjamin Peterson, thence on a 
straight line to the upward comer of the 
land of Christopher Wadsworth, viz., that 
comer of his land which is a little to the 
southward of the meeting-house." 

This highway was laid out 26 March, 
1715, by Edward Southworth, John Simons, 



€4 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

and John Partridge, selectmen. Several other 
highways were laid out in different parts of 
the town by the same men, and all the high- 
ways are spoken of with reference to the 
meeting-house. The value of the above 
record, and of all these records, is to show 
that the meeting-house of 1715 could not 
have been at Harden Hill, nor could it have 
been at Mrs. Thomas Chandler*s. We know 
where it was, but even had we not the very 
clear records we have as to its site, we could 
determine it from these records of the high- 
ways. But the church, the first church, 
taken down in 1707, and sold to Benjamin 
Prior, was within three or four rods of the 
one standing in 1715. 

This is a list of some of those who bought 
land sold to defray the expenses of the new 
meeting-house built in 1707. It is a continua- 
tion of the record of the report of Seth Arnold, 
John Partridge and Thomas Loring, chosen 
agents of the town of Duxbury on 16th 
September, 1706, to sell lands to pay for 
'^building a new meeting-house." 

From Joseph Chandler in Tarkiln, fifteen 
pounds. 

Abraham Booth, four acres. 

Benjamin Kein, thirty acres, more or less. 

Josiah Kein, nine acres, more or less. 

John Bishop, fifteen and a half acres for 
six pounds and two shillings. 

Samuel Bradford, Thomas Loring, Elisha 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 65 

Wadsworth and Jonathan Brewster, fifty- 
five acres, more or less, for eleven pounds. 

Aston Soule, twenty acres. 

Mathew Kein, six acres. 

Josiah Soule and Jonathan Brewster, 
one hundred and fifty acres. 

George Williamson, three acres for twenty 
shillings. 

James Boney and Isaac Pierce also 
bought land. 

It will be noticed that in some cases 
the amount of money is given, in others the 
amount of land, and in others both money 
and land. 



CHAPTER VI 

It would seem that, perhaps, enough 
has been said to prove where the first meet- 
ing-house and the first cemetery were located. 
But to me it is important not only to prove 
my own contention, but also to disprove 
every other hypothesis advanced, and to 
meet all objections to my own. So we shall 
now consider the position of those who 
advanced the theory that the old meeting- 
house and cemetery lay on the point of 
land west of Morton's Hole, on, or near, 
what is now the farm of Mrs. Thomas Chand- 
ler, and that Myles Standish was buried 
there. 

In order to reach this point or tongue 
of land stretching into the bay west of Mor- 
ton's Hole, you should have highways from 
the different parts of the town leading to 
this place. But in all the records of the 
town from the earliest times there is not a 
hint of a highway into this tongue of land. 
In fact it would be absurd to suppose that 
Standish and the founders of the town wotild 
have built their meeting-house, in such an 
out-of-the-way place. Standish, Brewster, 
and those who lived in the Nook would have 
to come up to Hall's Corner and then pass 
westward in order to get around the marsh 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 67 

that lay all round Morton^s Hole, and then 
still westward of the Goodwin (now Saunders) 
house, and then southerly, to reach the meeting- 
house, and this in all kinds of weather. To 
imagine such a thing when the roads were 
bad, and when the bay came farther north 
than it does at present, when the whole 
valley lying around Morton's Hole was swamp, 
and marsh, and when quite a large creek 
flowed down through the gorge beside the 
first bridge on what is known as the New 
Road or Border Street — to imagine, I say, 
such a location for the meeting-house as 
on that tongue of land west of Morton's 
Hole, is to imagine that Standish, Brewster, 
Alden, and the other prudent men who 
settled the town were doing their best to 
make church-going as difficult as possible 
for themselves and for all concerned. Then 
all the people in the north end of the town, 
in fact, in all the town, (we have already 
spoken of the Nook), would have to trudge 
their weary ways over bad roads and private 
ways and around swamps to this southerly 
point of land in the town to reach their 
meeting-house. Would it not be more in 
accordance with reason to suppose that all 
the inhabitants of the town would vote to 
place the meeting-house in a central, accessible 
place? Why should they select the most 
inaccessible places and the most inconvenient? 
It has been said that the swamp or marsh 



68 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

around Morton's Hole did not in former 
times extend so far southwardly as at present ; 
in other words, that the bay came in farther 
towards the north. Mr. Herbert Peterson, 
the present owner of the land in this marsh, 
says that he distinctly remembers when the 
marsh's edge was a good deal farther north 
than it is at present. This, too, is borne 
out by the fact that a fairly large creek 
called Morton's Hole creek ran into the bay 
at this point. The bed of the creek is still 
plainly visible, and the waters of the bay went 
up the creek to a considerable distance, just 
as at Eagle's Nest creek and Blue-fish river. 
That this was so is evidenced by the fact 
that in 1639 A.D., by order of the town a 
*'wear" was to be set at Morton's Hole. 

Taking all these things into considera- 
tion, and the swampy, boggy nature of the 
land around the Hole even to this day, we 
know that the arable and pasture land must 
have been less than it is today in this 
vicinity. These facts will be of the greatest 
interest when we keep them in memory 
in connection with the grants of land and 
the boundaries of farms and high-ways at 
and near Morton's Hole. 

As has been said there was not a high- 
way leading into this tongue of land, now 
owned by Mrs. Thomas Chandler, from any 
part of the town. Had Mr. Winsor adverted 
to what he wrote on page 183, he could have 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 69 

saved a great deal of confusion, and if those 
who would locate the first meeting-house on 
Mrs. Chandler's farm would but attend to 
the geography of the town, and the records 
of highways, farms, and town's lands, they 
would be saved the mistake of trying to prove 
an impossible thing. 

We have already seen that the Rev. Mr. 
Holmes built his house on land bought of 
John Sprague, and we have seen the loca- 
tion of that land with reference to Morton's 
Hole and the road leading from the meet- 
ing-house into the Nook. A road leading 
from Chandler's farm to the Nook could not 
by any possibility be the eastern boundary for 
a farm lying northeast of Morton's Hole 
marsh. 

The Chandler farm is west of Morton's 
Hole, and no highway ever ran to and from 
Chandler's place. How could a farm lying 
northeast of Morton's Hole be boimded on 
its eastern side by a supposed road nmning 
from a point west of Morton's Hole to a 
point of land due east of Morton's Hole? 
It is well to bear in mind that Mr. Hohnes 
came to Duxbury in 1658, and bought the 
land from Sprague and built his home thereon. 

The location of the Sprague farm will 
also prove that the road from the meeting- 
house into the Nook could not be a road 
nmning from the Chandler farm. The Sprague 
homestead and farm lay between the Nook 



70 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

and Powder Point. In the deed which will 
be cited later this will be more evident. 
We cite the following from the ''Memorial 
of the Sprague Family" by Richard Soule. 
Speaking of Francis Sprague, who was ad- 
mitted a freeman in 1637, Mr. Sonle says: 
''Nothing is known in regard to the locality 
of his residence, except that it was somewhere 
on the shore between Captain's Hill and 
Bluefish River. In an interesting paper by 
the late Alden Bradford, entitled 'Notes on 
Duxbury', and published in the Massachusetts 
Historical Collections, it is stated as a matter 
of record, that a pathway was early laid out 
from Plymouth, over Jones' River, and cross- 
ing Island Creek, wound along near the 
shore of the bay to accommodate Standish, 
Brewster, Sprague, and others in the south 
and east part of the town, and then led over 
Blue river near the head of the salt water, 
and passing John Alden' s settlement on the 
north side of this river was continued over 
Stony brook (Mill Brook) near Philip Delano, 
who had just begun a farm there by Duck 
Hill, to Careswell, the residence of Governor 
Winslow. 

"Standish and Brewster, it is well known, 
resided on the south-eastern side of the 
peninsula, now called 'The Nook,' of which 
Captain's Hill forms a part. But whether 
Sprague, who is named with them in this 
extract, is to be classed with those who 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 71 

dwelt in the south, or with those living in 
the east part of the town, does not clearly 
appear. It is most probable, however, that 
as the names of Standish and Brewster must 
have been intended to represent the first 
locality, that of Sprague, was introduced as 
representing the last." 

This Francis Sprague was the father of 
John Sprague, who sold the land for his 
homestead to Rev. John Holmes. From 
this we can see that the Sprague land lay 
between the Nook and the Alden farm and 
the eastern shore. The Spragues never owned 
land on Harden Hill, nor where the Chandler 
farm is, west of Morton's Hole. The road 
from the meeting-house to the Nook must 
have run through the Sprague farm, and in 
fact we shall see that it did. The part of 
the Sprague farm sold to Holmes lay to the 
west of this road. The location, then, of 
the Sprague farm is of interest in this matter. 

AH that has been suggested so far is 
borne out by a reference to the highways 
set forth in Duxbury by the jury of twelve 
impaneled in 1637 for this purpose. Winsor 
in his History gives a good accoimt of these 
highways on page seventeen. His descrip- 
tion is taken from the original documents. 
He says: 'The roads through Duxbury 
began at the ferry at Jones river, and thence 
by Stephen Tracy's (the present Samuel 
Loring's) to the bridge at John Rogers', 



72 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

thence by Jonathan Brewster's cowyard, 
through a valley near the house of Mr. 
Prence, thence by Christopher Wadsworth's 
whose pallasadoe is to be removed, thence 
to Francis Sprague's and then fell into the 
way that leads from Morton's Hole to Ducks- 
burrow Towne." 

Continuing the description of the high- 
ways Winsor says: "From this main path 
(that is, the one just described) there branched 
ofE one going to the Nook to accommodate 
Standish and Brewster, and returning by 
Wm. Bassett's and Francis Sprague's, through 
an ancient path joined again the highway." 

In these words we have again confirma- 
tion of the location of Sprague's land and 
therefore of the position of Wiswall's home 
in regard to the road leading from the meet- 
ing-house into the Nook. We may also 
refer to the fact that in 1638, when Prince 
was governor, the Plymouth Colony Records 
say: * 'Whereas there was a highway laid 
forth through Captain Standish and Mr. 
Brewster's ground on the Duxburrow side, 
which is not of use for the country, and they 
do therefore refuse to repair the same, the 
said Captain Standish and Mr. Brewster do 
undertake to repair said way and it to be 
only for their own use." This road leading 
into the Nook was repaired and improved 
in 1715, and to this we shall again refer in 
quoting some records concerning the location 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 73 

of the Nook with regard to the meeting- 
house. 

To return to a description of the highways 
as set forth by the jury of twelve in 1637: 
'Trom Wadsworth's the path led through 
Sprague's and Bassett's orchards, thence 
through John Washburn's land to William 
Palmer's gate, thence through Peter Brown's 
land to the westward of Henry Rowland's 
house, thence through a marsh to Mr. John 
Alden's, thence through a valley by the 
comer of Philip Delano's farm to Edward 
Btimpasse's and thence by Rowland Ley- 
bome's house to Green's Harbor." 

Here again you will be helped to locate 
Sprague's land, and that of other early 
settlers. 



CHAPTER VII 

We know now the general run of the 
highways, and the locations of some of 
the farms and their situation as regards 
Morton's Hole. 

The highways were: (1) the one from 
Plymouth through Kingston to Bayley's Cor- 
ner, and then going through the woods 
towards the north-east, coming out at a 
point a little south of the Soldiers' monu- 
ment near the Unitarian church, and bending 
around to the south-east by the eastern 
side of the old cemetery between Hall's 
and Bayley's Comers. The present direct 
road between these Corners was not made 
for many years after the settlement of the 
town. The Plymouth road, as already seen, 
came through Christopher Wadsworth's land 
into Sprague's, and from this place near 
Morton's Hole the second road was laid out. 
pi* (2) The second road ran from the north 
of Morton's Hole to the west of John Alden's 
farm of 169 acres to Mill Brook, to Duck 
Hill, and to the home of Winslow at Cares- 
well. This is the road spoken of in the 
records as going from Morton's Hole to 
Ducksburrow town and having the church 
and cemetery on the west. 
r I%i3) The third road ran from the junc- 
tion of the other two, north of Morton's 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 75 

Hole to the homes of Standish and Brewster. 
A new road was made to the Nook in 1715, 
and this new road ran to the east of the old 
one made in 1637. These were the original 
roads of the town, and all other roads made 
in the town, as well as these, are found in the 
Old Colony Records, or in the records of 
Duxbury, and in the deeds about farms 
and public lands. It must be borne in mind 
that (1) the new road to Kingston, (2) the 
present road to the Nook from Hall's Cor- 
ner, (3) the road from Hall's to Bayley's 
Comer, (4) the road from Hall's Comer 
to the South Duxbury station, and (5) 
the road from Hall's Comer coming to the 
eastern shore and along the shore to Powder 
Point, were not in existence for very many 
years after the settlement of the town; not 
one of these five roads was in being before 
the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

The road to Standish's was, as we have 
seen, kept private for a nimiber of years, 
and this is the path partly followed by the 
road made in 1715, A.D., when it was laid 
out as a highway through Wiswall's land 
up to the meeting-house. 

From all this it will be evident that no 
highway led down to the farm of Mrs. Thomas 
Chandler. All the paths and roads converged 
to a point near the farms of Wadsworth and 
Sprague lying north of Morton's Hole. Mrs. 
Chandler's farm lies to the west of Morton's 



76 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Hole, and by no possibility could you con- 
ceive of a road leading from a supposed 
meeting-house on that farm into the Nook 
and bounding Wiswall's house lot of ''five 
or eight acres" on the east. 

When to all this you add that there is 
not the slightest trace of a meeting-house, 
or of a public graveyard, or of any public 
roads on Mrs. Chandler's farm, the most 
skeptical must be satisfied that the sugges- 
tion of some as to the location of the first 
chtirch and graveyard on that farm is al- 
together gratuitous. In this case there is 
no claim advanced that the sea washed 
away the dead, nor is there any effort made 
to explain the absence of all trace of some 
scores of graves on that piece of land. 

The old way from Mrs. Chandler's to 
the old road between Duxbury and Plymouth 
was a path leading up from this southerly 
point of land to the main road. This was 
the only way to and from that point of land, 
and Mrs. Thomas Chandler remembers when 
there was no other way. Now, the path 
leads up to the new road called Border Street. 
When you go down Border Street and pass 
the house of the late Mr. LeBaron Goodwin, 
you come to the lane that leads down to 
Mrs. Chandler's. There is a small piece of 
land on which there are four hills lying south 
of Border Street. On one of these hills on 
the south-east of this tongue of land is the 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 77 

home of Mr. Ellis Peterson. Behind his 
house is another of these hills on the land 
of Mr. Goodwin (now Saunders). On the 
south-west comer of the land is the home 
of Mrs. Thomas Chandler, and it is on a 
hill, the third one, while the fourth hill 
lies on Mrs. Chandler's farm a few rods to 
the north of her house. These four hills, 
or hillocks, with the valleys, are all the land 
that lies on this tongue. The marsh and 
swamp came up to Goodwin's house on the 
east and northeast of this little promontory 
with its four hills, and on the north-west, 
west, and south, the bay and the swamp 
came in almost to the cart-road that leads 
to Mrs. Chandler's. The supposed meet- 
ing-house and graveyard lay to the north 
of Mrs. Chandler's dwelling house, or five 
or six rods north of her bam. The site is 
on the edge of the north-west hill on her 
farm, as it slopes to the west. This is a 
small piece of sloping land, and any person 
can at once see that it wotild be the height 
of folly for the first settlers of Duxbury to 
build their meeting-house and bury their 
dead there. There is not land enough for 
such a purpose. The site would be one of 
the most inconvenient in the town. It is 
simply a small piece of sandy soil with four 
small hills and their slopes. The people 
would have to trudge through dreary swamps 
to reach this spot. No highways ran to it; 



78 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

not one of the farms mentioned in the records 
as lying near the meeting-house was there. 
None of the land lying south of the meet- 
ing-house could be there, for it is only a 
few rods to the water's edge on the south 
and west. What then of the farms men- 
tioned as lying south of the meeting-house, 
north of Morton's Hole, and west of the road 
leading from the meeting-house into the 
Nook? ^ 

This place of four hills was evidently 
an Indian resort. Countless arrowheads, and 
Indian mortars for grinding com, and heaps 
of clam-shells and of corn-stalks, have been 
ploughed up on these hills. Mrs. Chandler 
said the church and graveyard were on the 
little sand hill on Mr. Goodwin's farm. This 
would be an impossibility. No graves were 
ever found there, no church was ever built 
there. After digging down to quite a depth, 
we foimd nothing but some modem brick, and 
traces of btimt clam-shells, and some broken 
modem crockery. Afterwards we were told 
that Mrs. Chandler pointed out the wrong 
place, and that the supposed site of the old 
church and graveyard was on the western 
slope of the hill a few rods north of her dwell- 
ing house. Of this site we heard the full 
history from some of the oldest persons in 
town. From what has been said it will be 
seen that there is not a record, not a trace, 
of a meeting-house having ever been at or 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 79 

near Mrs. Chandler's farm. The only evi- 
dence ever produced to prove that there was 
a meeting-house on this promontory of sand 
hills was the fact that some bones were 
found on the western slope of the hill north 
of Mrs. Chandler's house. A few bones 
were found. The conclusion deduced was 
this — ^here was the first graveyard, and there- 
fore the first meeting-house, and therefore 
here Standish was buried. The wonder of 
it all is, that nobody can tell whether the 
bones were those of a white man or not, nor 
indeed if they were human bones at all. If 
the first burial ground were here, there 
should be at least about one hundred graves 
in the place, but there is no trace of such a 
thing. 

Mr. Frank Ryder, who is acquainted 
with all the tradition about this old hill- 
side, says that it was a home, or private, 
or family, burial place. That it could not 
have been anything more, if even that, is 
too plain; and then to imagine that Captain 
Myles Standish would have buried his be- 
loved children on the farm of a stranger, in 
a most forsaken and unseemly place, is the 
height of folly. 

The search at Mrs. Thomas Chandler's 
was conducted by Dr. Wilfred G. Brown 
of Duxbury and myself. 

Leaving Mrs. Chandler's we went to 
Mr. Frank Ryder's. Mr. Ryder lives in 



80 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

a house known as the Cushman house. 
Our reason for going to Mr. Ryder's was 
this: Mrs. Ziba Hunt, who Hves near the 
almshouse, and is a very old woman, told 
me that her mother, Mrs. Diana Chandler, 
had an old lady spinning for her, who had 
just come from Mrs. Cushman's, and this 
old lady told Mrs. Diana Chandler that 
Mrs. Cushman had pointed out to her the 
grave of Myles Standish from the window 
of Mrs. Cushman's house. 

Dr. Brown and I went to Mr. Ryder's to 
find out if we could see the supposed grave- 
yard at Mrs. Thomas Chandler's from *'the 
Cushman house." We found that it would 
be a physical impossibility to see the reported 
graveyard from any part of Mr. Ryder's 
house. You could see the roof and part of 
Mrs. Thomas Chandler's house, but you 
could not see the grotmd at the back of her 
house, nor the lower slope on the western side 
of the hill which was the supposed graveyard. 
This is true even if all the trees intervening 
were removed. There are a few trees in the 
way, but the hill on which Mr. Ryder's 
house sits stretches so far to the south that 
it is impossible, owing to this hill and to 
other intervening hills, to see the land at 
the back of Mrs. Thomas Chandler's. The 
evident conclusion then is, that Mrs. Cushman 
could not have pointed out the supposed 
grave near Mrs. Thomas Chandler's, to the 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 81 

old lady who did the spinning for herself 
and Mrs. Diana Chandler. 

The house in which Mr. Ryder lives 
was partly built by Dr. John Wadsworth, 
who died in 1799. Since Dr. Wadsworth 
first built on that site, the house has been 
enlarged to three or four times its original 
size and extended several feet to the south. 
When built by Dr. Wadsworth, it was a 
small one-storey house. 

Originally it faced the east, or east by 
north, while now the main part of the house 
faces the south. Even as the house now 
stands, extending much farther to the south, 
it would be impossible for any one to point 
out from it the grave, or to see any of the 
land around Mrs. Thomas Chandler's. 



CHAPTER VIII 

The "Ryder house," called by some the 
"Cushman house," was built in 1763 for 
Joshua Cushman, when he married Mercy 
Wadsworth, the daughter of Doctor John 
Wadsworth. This was the first house built 
in all that section of the town down to the bay. 

Seeing that it would be impossible for 
any one to point out the supposed grave of 
Standish, near Mrs. Thomas Chandler's, from 
any part of the Ryder or Cushman house, 
and pursuing our investigations, we dis- 
covered several things of the greatest im- 
portance in this matter of the Cushman 
tradition. 

First of all it was evident that the Cush- 
man tradition, of whatever value, depended 
on the authority of Doctor John Wadsworth, 
the father of Mercy, who married Joshua 
Cushman in 1763. Dr. Wadsworth built a 
home for them. Now, Doctor Wadsworth's 
authority is plain. He spoke of two re- 
markable, triangular, pyramidal stones as 
marking the burial place of Standish. His 
daughter had her tradition from him, and 
thus the Cushman tradition in every form 
resolves itself into Dr. Wadsworth's state- 
ments. 

Besides the story of the spinning woman, 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 83 

who was a stranger in town, we have two 
other forms of the Cushman tradition. Let 
us examine the spinning woman's story first 
of alL Other traditions, doubtless derived 
from her story, make the same statement, 
that the grave of Myles Standish can be 
seen from the Cushman house. In testing 
this story we found that there were two 
Cushman houses and three Mrs. Cushmans. 
One Cushman house is the present Ryder 
house, and the other is the Charlemagne 
Cushman house, built about the year 1800 
A.D., and now owned by Mrs. Captain 
Myrick. Mrs. Hunt, whose mother, Mrs. 
Diana Chandler, had heard the spinning 
woman's story, was unable to say which of 
the two Cushman houses was in question, 
and which of the three Mrs. Cushmans, 
Mrs. Joshua Cushman, or her daughter-in- 
law, Mrs. Ezra Cushman, or Mrs. Charle- 
magne Cushman. With all this doubt hang- 
ing around the exact house and the exact 
Mrs. Cushman, and whether one Mrs. Cush- 
man might not have been visiting at the 
home of another Mrs. Cushman, or living 
there for the time, we could arrive at no 
satisfactory conclusion but this: that a Mrs. 
Cushman pointed out from a Cushman house 
the grave of Myles Standish to a spinning 
woman. This is the substantial evidence of 
the tradition. 

Now, from neither Cushman house could 



84 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

you see the reputed graveyard at Mrs. 
Thomas Chandler's. From Mrs. Myrick's, 
which is the Charlemagne Cushman house, 
you can see the old cemetery between Hall's 
and Bayley's Comers, and almost the very 
grave of Standish about the centre of the 
graveyard. 

Another form of the Cushman tradition 
is that Dr. John Wadsworth, when taking 
his occasional visitors to see the burial 
place of Standish, always went to the south- 
east from his house. The conclusion would 
be that he went to the farm of Mrs. Thomas 
Chandler. This tradition is held by a very 
few people who can give no account of it, 
and who know nothing about where Doctor 
Wadsworth lived, nor the situation of his 
home with reference to either Mrs. Thomas 
Chandler's place, or the old cemetery be- 
tween Hall's and Bayley's Comers. This 
tradition is evidently the same as that of 
which Mr. Stephen M. Allen gives an account 
in his letter to the Boston Transcript of June 
2, 1891. Mr. Allen says:— 

"The traditional account which was 
published in the Transcript some fifteen 
or eighteen years ago, herewith transcribed, 
seems much more plausible than the recent 
claims set up. It is as follows : — 

'The burial place of Standish has not 
yet been found. It was not until 1872 that 
we had any probable clew to its location. At 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 85 

the laying of the comer-stone of the monu- 
ment to Standish there was an old lady 
present, Mrs. Loriann Thomas Loring, now 
living at Charlestown, whose family formerly 
lived in Duxbury, who gave some light on that 
subject which may lead to the discovery of 
his grave. She said that her mother, Mary 
Cushman Thomas, who was a granddaughter 
of Dr. John Wadsworth, of Duxbury, who 
died in 1799, had many times informed her 
that when a girl of fifteen or sixteen she used 
to pass much time with her grandfather, 
who lived on or near the westerly shore of 
the head of the bay, directly west of Captain's 
hill and southwest of Morton's Hole, and on 
the west side of what is now the new road 
from Hall's Comer to Kingston, in a house 
still standing and occupied by Mr. George 
F. Ryder; that Dr. Wadsworth often had 
distinguished guests to dine with him, when 
she was present, and that after dinner in 
such cases it was almost his invariable custom 
to invite them to visit the grave of Standish 
near the shore ; that she had many times seen 
her grandfather start from the south side 
of the house and go in a southeasterly direction 
to the shore with such guests to a small 
hill in two parts, now owned by Thomas 
Chandler, and lying almost down to the 
water's edge. In such cases on their return 
she had heard them converse about the grave 
and she had no doubt it was there. The 



86 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

old lady died February 27, 1859, in Charles- 
town and but a year before her death, she 
reiterated her statement to Mrs. Loring. 
On examination we have found that at the 
time specified there was a road on the south 
side of Dr. Wadsworth's house which ran 
down toward the shore, but that it had long 
since been discontinued; also that upon 
one of the points on the rise of land, so men- 
tioned, the first rude church of Duxbury is 
supposed to have been built. It is quite 
likely that the adjoining knoll should have 
been used for their first burying ground. It 
has been assigned as the reason for building 
the first church tipon the shore, that it was 
for safety against any attack from the 
Indians, leaving a means of escape by boats 
across to Plymouth. The early records men- 
tion an examination near Morton's Hole for 
a church. Captain Standish, in his will 
said he desired to be buried beside his daughter 
and daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law 
was the wife of Lieutenant Josiah Standish, 
who afterward married the daughter of Samuel 
Allen of Bridgewater. It is to be hoped 
that, although there is at present no sign 
of graves on the spot mentioned, if there 
they may yet be discovered, that the remains 
may be placed at the base of the Standish 
monument.' " 

It is necessary to examine the story told 
by Mr. Allen. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS _87 

First of all he speaks of "the traditional 
account/' as if the obscure hint of a tradi- 
tion to which he refers were the sum and 
substance of all reliable traditions on this 
matter. Then he says that it was only in 
1872 that there was any probable clew to 
the location of the Standish grave. It was 
then Mr. Allen first heard what he calls a 
''probable" clew, but if he had inquired 
he would have found that many of the people 
knew of the burying place of Standish long 
before 1872. 

Mr. Allen quotes Mrs. Loriann Thomas 
Loring as authority for his version of the 
traditional account. Mrs. Loring was the 
daughter of Mary Cushman Thomas, who 
was bom in 1768 and was the daughter of 
Mercy Wadsworth (the daughter of Dr. 
John), who in 1763 married Joshua Cush- 
man. The important points in Mrs. Lor- 
ing's account are, that Dr. Wadsworth in 
going with his guests to the Standish burial 
place went to the southeast from his house, 
and that his house is the one now occupied 
by George Frank Ryder. Mr. Allen, in telling 
the public where George Frank Ryder's house 
is, says it is "on or near the westerly shore of 
the head of the bay, directly west of Captain's 
Hill and southwest of Morton's Hole, and on 
the west side of what is now the new road 
from Hall corner to Kingston." This story 
is entirely inaccurate. Mr. Ryder's house 



88 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

lies north of the bay; it is far more north 
than west of Captain's Hill; it is almost 
due north of Morton's Hole, instead of 
being south-west as Mr. Allen's account 
says; and it is due north to the new road 
from Hall's Comer to Kingston. 

Again, so far from Mr. Ryder's house 
having been the home of Dr. Wadsworth, 
the doctor built that house for his daughter 
in 1763; he lived on the Fernando Wadsworth 
homestead west of Bayley's Comer. George 
Frank Ryder, who lives in the old Cushman 
house, to which Mr. Allen refers, says that 
Dr. Wadsworth (the great-great-grandfather 
of Mrs. Ryder) lived on the Fernando Wads- 
worth homestead. Justin Winsor in his his- 
tory of Duxbury, on page 12, writes: "On 
one of the roads leading from the inland towns, 
was situated the house of Dr. John Wadsworth, 
who was noted as rather an eccentric in- 
dividual, and concerning whom some anecdotes 
of an amusing nature are still current. By 
his door frequently passed the adventuresome 
sons of farmers of the interior, eager to ship 
themselves on board some of the compara- 
tively many fishing vessels, which were then 
often leaving Duxbury at the proper season. 
At one time a party of these going by, asked 
the doctor the distance to the village, and 
other questions concerning the prospects be- 
fore them, who met them with the reply: 
*Ah, you are going there, are you? That 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 89 

place is Sodom. I tell you it is going to be 
Slink, it is! Well, now, do you want me to 
make you a rhyme? Well, then — 

The Swampineers avoid all fears, 
A fishing they will go. 

If they scape h — , it will be well, 
But that they willn't I know.' 
And with this most solemn warning he 
dismissed them.'* 

From this it will be seen that as Dr. 
Wadsworth lived on one of the roads lead- 
ing from the inland towns he could not have 
lived in the Ryder house. No public high- 
way ever ran by the Ryder house, and the 
Ryder house is not even now on a highway, 
nor is it situated on the way from the inland 
towns to the shore. Those who know best 
say that Dr. Wadsworth lived beyond Bay- 
ley's Comer, on the Fernando Wadsworth. 
place. 

Dr. Wadsworth was bom in 1706, and 
died in 1799. The only ways open to him 
to reach the old cemetery between Hall's 
and Bayley's Comers, were either to go to 
the northeast and ttuning to the east by the 
old road before mentioned, (which was a 
little south of the Soldiers' monument) bend 
round to the southeast and so come to the 
old cemetery ; or he could go to the southeast 
from his house by a path that led to the home 
of his daughter Mercy, Mrs. Joshua Cushman, 
and turning towards the east bend a little 



90 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

towards the northeast to the old cemetery. 
This latter was the shorter route on foot, 
and the more picturesque, lying within view 
of the bay, and Dr. Wadsworth would be 
traveling almost all the time through land 
belonging to himself or his family. In this 
way he would have gone in a southeasterly 
direction from his own house. But Mr. 
Allen says that the doctor went in a south- 
easterly direction from Mr. Ryder's house 
to the Chandler place. Now this is an 
absolute impossibility. The home of Mrs. 
Thomas Chandler lies in a south-westerly 
direction from the Ryder home, and the 
roadway or rather path of which Mr. Allen 
says he found traces ran in a south-westerly 
direction. This is the path which Mrs. 
Thomas Chandler says was for the con- 
venience of private persons, not of the public. 
In Mrs. Loriann Thomas Loring's ac- 
count we see that she does not say that her 
mother ever said that she went with Dr. 
Wadsworth and his guests to the burial 
place of Standish. Mrs. Loring's mother, 
Mrs. Cushman Thomas (daughter of Mercy 
Wadsworth) left Duxbury when a yotmg 
woman, and, from the account we receive 
from her, it is plain that she did not live in 
the same house with her grandfather. Dr. 
John Wadsworth. She lived in her father's 
house, the Joshua Cushman house, where 
eorge Frank Ryder now lives. The whole 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 91 

story is so full of inaccuracies about places, 
dates, and directions, that its value amounts 
simply to this, that Dr. John Wadsworth 
was in the habit of taking his guests to see 
the burial place of Myles Standish, and that 
this burial place was in the south-eastern 
part of Duxbury, near the bay and within 
easy walking distance of Dr. Wadsworth's 
home. Also we see that his burial place was 
beside the church. Hereafter we shall see 
that Dr. Wadsworth spoke of the two re- 
markable triangular pyramids of stone that 
marked the burial place. It is not necessary 
to dwell at greater length on this version of 
the Cushman tradition, except to say that 
its whole value depends on the authority of 
Dr. Wadsworth, and his more explicit testi- 
mony we shall see later. 

We must not omit to refer to Mr. Allen's 
last argtmient to uphold the groundless theory 
he advocates. He says : "It has been assigned 
as the reason for building the first church 
upon the shore, that it was for safety 
against any attack from the Indians, leaving 
a means of escape by boats across to Plym- 
outh.*' This is, perhaps, the strongest argu- 
ment for this theory. According to this, the 
Indians were to attack the town when the 
people, men, women, and children, were 
at the little meeting-house, or the people 
were all to rush there when attacked, all the 
boats were to be there, and the waters of 



92 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

iCingston Bay and of Plymouth Bay were 
to remain in the bays all the time! 

A third version of the Cushman tradi- 
tion is that Myles Standish was buried a 
few rods to the south-east of Mr. Ryder's 
house, on the farm now owned by Mr. Ryder. 
This shows that the belief of later generations 
of Cushmans in the Thomas Chandler farm 
theory was not very strong. Mr. Ryder 
points out the spot on his farm, which one 
of Mrs. Ryder's ancestors believed to be 
the burial place of Standish, and which Mr. 
Cushman did not allow to be ploughed for a 
nimiber of years. It is not necessary to say 
that the Mr. Cushman who held this absurd 
theory had no grounds for holding it. The 
Ryder farm and all the land south to the 
shore, including Mrs. Myrick's, ElHs Peter- 
son's, Mrs. Thomas Chandler's, George Tor- 
rey's, Henry Barstow's, Fernando Wadsworth's, 
etc., etc., all belonged to the farm of Chris- 
topher Wadsworth almost from the time 
he came to Duxbury with the first settlers. 
He bought Job Cole's land and John Starr's 
and other land, which, with the grants to 
himself, made an immense farm. There 
never was any town land on any part of this 
farm, whether at Mrs. Thomas Chandler's 
place or elsewhere. The Captain would not 
be buried on another man's farm, nor would 
he biuy his children there. Christopher 
Wadsworth was alive in 1677. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 95 

In closing this Chandler farm theory, 
it is not needless to say that the first house 
biiilt in that particular section of South 
Duxbury about the Chandler farm was built 
in 1763 by Dr. John Wadsworth. It is the 
house known as the George Frank Ryder 
house. 

Mrs. Thomas Chandler herself told me 
that the bones foimd on or near her farm 
were Indian bones. She said that her hus- 
band had found quantities of arrow-heads, 
pieces of broken mortars, and heaps of 
clam-shells and burnt corn-stalks, on this 
little bit of sandy grotmd so unceremoniously 
thrust on public notice as the first cemetery 
and site of the first meeting-house. Several 
of the oldest people in the commtmity told 
me that the general impression was that the 
few bones foimd in this place were Indian 
bones. Mr. George Frank Ryder thought 
they were the remains of a private biuial 
place. 

In the heyday of Duxbury when ship- 
building was quite an industry, there was 
a ship-yard on this point of land. A private 
pathway or road led up from it to the old 
Bay Road, passing near where Mr. Ryder's 
house stands. Mrs. Thomas Chandler told 
me that she very clearly remembered this 
road as existing fifty years before my inter- 
view with her, and that it was always a 
private road. 



CHAPTER IX 

There has always been a tradition in 
the town that the Standish burial place was 
marked by two peculiar stones lying due 
east and west about six feet apart. Mr 
Justin Winsor in his History of Duxbury, 
speaks of this tradition. He says: "There 
are, a short distance easterly from the site, 
(to what site Mr. Winsor refers it is not easy 
to see;) two stones of considerable size, which 
are about six feet apart, and were thought 
to mark, perchance, the grave of some one 
of the family. A few years ago investigations 
were made, but without affording any founda- 
tion for the supposition.*' In a foot-note 
Mr. Winsor says: "Their peculiar shape 
(that is the peculiar shape of the two stones), 
though evidently in their rough state, and 
the fact that their position to each other 
was exactly east and west, induced some 
persons to dig between them in hopes of 
making a discovery. Excavations were ac- 
cordingly made to the depth of eight feet, 
without, however, any success. In a bio- 
graphical sketch of the author, appended to 
Capt. Samuel Delano's Voyages, and written 
in 1817, it is stated in speaking of Capt. 
Standish, 'Here he died; and some aged 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 95 

people in the close of the last century pointed 
out the spot where he was buried.' " Mr. 
Winsor then tells of an antiquarian friend who 
commenced his researches in Duxbury about 
1827, and who was imable to verify oral 
tradition, nor could he find any trace of 
such a tradition among the octogenarians 
of that time. 

From these facts we gather that a few 
years before 1849 (when Mr. Winsor pub- 
lished his history) a search was made in a 
spot pointed out by two stones under the 
impression that Standish, or some of his 
family, might have been buried there. Mr. 
Winsor's antiquarian friend, the Rev. Mr. 
Kent, who began his researches in 1827, or 
thereabouts, must have been misinformed, 
or else he did not come in contact with the 
right people. That the tradition has always 
been in the town is too evident. 

The facts cited by Mr. Winsor attest 
the existence of the tradition. That his 
friend was unable to meet anyone to tell 
him of the tradition, is of no consequence 
in the face of the contrary facts, and the 
value of this friend's negative testimony 
would largely depend on the manner in 
which he investigated. From the evidence 
produced, from the records about the old 
meeting-house, it is clear that antiquarians in 
Duxbury have been rather vague in their 
searches and very easily satisfied with proofs. 



96 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

The venerable antiquarian of 1827, re- 
ferred to by Mr. Winsor, and quoted with 
sublime faith by Mrs. Jane G. Austin, was 
the Rev. Mr. Kent. He was a devoted 
collector of Standish relics from the cellar 
of the Captain's house, and the young boys 
of the time very often scattered "Standish 
relics" in that place for his benefit. Some 
of those boys, now old men, have often told 
me with a chuckle how they loved to play 
pranks on the venerable and gmleless anti- 
quarian, and how they enjoyed his delight 
in going over the same ground again and 
again and always with most remarkable 
success in finding modem Standish relics. 
We all know of such innocent collectors of 
relics, and books, and paintings. But Mr. 
Kent evidently never searched the records 
of Duxbury and Plymouth, never studied 
the locations of roads, the boundaries of 
farms, or anything else that would throw 
light on the location of the meeting-house and 
cemetery of the early settlers. When his 
testimony is quoted — one hesitates. 

I have referred to Mr. Winsor's History 
of Duxbury where he says, ''There are, a 
short distance easterly from the site, two 
stones of considerable size, which are about 
six feet apart, and were thought to mark, 
perchance, the grave of some one of the 
family." Mr. Winsor continues, that in- 
vestigations having been made iDy digging 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 97 

between the stones, there was not found 
anything to afford foundation for the sup- 
position that anyone had been buried there. 
I have said that you cannot tell to what 
*'site" Mr. Winsor is referring. Mrs. Jane 
G. Austin, a writer of Old Colony stories, 
in some letters to the Boston Transcript 
and other papers, suggests that the two 
stones spoken of by Mr. Winsor were "near 
his own house," that is, Standish's own 
house. Of course, no trace of a body was 
found there, for evidently no body was ever 
buried there. The stones may have been 
gateway stones, or markers for a path or 
way, either into Standish's place or to Elder 
Brewster's place, or they may have been 
placed there long after Standish's time. 

Mrs. Austin in her letters says the 
three-cornered stone theory took its rise 
in 1887. Of course this is not so, for many 
of the old people of the town had the tradi- 
tion handed down to them about the re- 
markable three-cornered stones at Standish's 
burial place. Among some of the many of 
the oldest people who told me about the 
tradition they had known from their earliest 
years were Mr. Benjamin Prior,* Miss Caroline 
B. Hall, Mr. Ziba Hunt, Mrs. Ziba Hunt, 
Mr. Ezra Cushman, not to mention Miss 
Lucia A. Bradford, a direct descendant of 
Governor Bradford, a woman of the best 
educa tion and ciilture, and one of the most 

*Not Mrs. Hall's friend. 



98 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

highly respected women in New England 
in her time. Miss Bradford was over eighty 
years of age at the time she told me of the 
tradition; she was greatly interested in our 
researches, and notwithstanding her age, was 
as bright and intellectual a person as one 
would rarely meet in life. Miss Bradford 
showed me a letter which she had received 
from Mrs. Jane G. Austin, who asked Miss 
Bradford if she did not think that Standish 
was buried at Harden Hill. Miss Bradford 
wrote in reply an emphatic letter declaring 
that Standish was buried in the little cemetery 
between Hall's Corner and Bayley's Comer. 
Indeed Miss Bradford was very emphatic 
in her statements, that all that she ever had 
heard from her parents and others showed 
that Standish was buried where we later 
found his grave. As to the widow of Captain 
Standish, the last mention of her found in 
the records is on the 6th October, 1659, 
when the inventory of the estate of Elizabeth 
Hopkins of Plymouth is mentioned. This 
is the Elizabeth Hopkins in whose behalf 
Standish was to have been prosecutor in 
Plymouth Court two days after his death. 
All further information I have been able to 
collect about Mrs. Standish says that she 
went to Connecticut and lived with her son 
Josias and died there. 

I have spoken of Miss Caroline B. 
Hall. Miss Hall was quite an elderly lady, 
living at Hall's Comer in the large old Hall 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 99 

homestead. Miss Hall was a descendant 
of Captain Standish through her mother, 
Mrs. Ruth Josselyn Hall. Mrs. Austin visited 
Miss Hall in Duxbury after Mr. Melzar 
Brewster had found the three-cornered stones 
in the little cemetery, where they may be 
seen; at the time Miss Hall had two other 
visitors with her, and Miss Hall told me 
that Mrs. Austin was very enthusiastic about 
the two stones in the little cemetery near 
Hall's Corner, and proposed and promised 
to bury Captain Standish in what we call 
the Hall's Comer cemetery, and to mention 
the two stones, in her next novel. At the 
time of this visit to Miss Hall, Mrs. Austin 
was living in Plymouth, where she used 
to make her summer home. Mrs. Austin 
in one of her letters thus refers to the matter; 
she says that in 1887, when "she heard a 
rumor that a lady in Duxbury possessed a 
document proving the burial place of Myles 
Standish," she called upon her, etc. Mrs. 
Austin does not refer to the several historic 
relics of Duxbury and Standish loaned to 
her by Miss Hall, to assist her in getting 
local color for her novels. There were two 
other visitors, as I have said, present during 
the call of Mrs. Austin. Miss Hall was, 
when I knew her, a very bright woman for 
all her seventy-six years. She was sojne- 
what disappointed in Mrs. Austin's treat- 
ment of the history of Duxbury, and wrote 



100 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

asking for the return of the cherished relics 
she had allowed Mrs. Austin to borrow. 
Miss Hall considered Mrs. Austin's history 
very inaccurate. 

Miss Hall owned a large scrap-book, 
bound with russet leather and filled with 
newspaper clippings. Towards the end of 
the book is pasted a bit of writing paper, 
on which is written in the hand-writing of 
Miss Hall's mother, Mrs. Ruth Josselyn 
Hall:— 

"Miles Standish, 1660, the first, was 
buried in the old grave yard. Two three 
comer stones to his grave." 

When Miss Hall showed me this record 
I was greatly interested. I took a copy 
of it, with her permission. Miss Hall's mother 
was bom in 1779 and died in 1873; she was 
ninety-four years of age at her death. 

To the above record Miss Hall had 
added this note: "As told by Benjamin 
Prior, who was bom in 1775." Miss Hall 
said her mother wrote this record about 1858. 

The story of this record is this. The 
Benjamin Prior referred to died in 1867. 
He was ninety-two years of age at his death. 
In a conversation with Mrs. Ruth Josselyn 
Hall, he told her about the two stones, and 
Miss Hall told me that he was referring to 
the old graveyard between Hall's and Bay- 
ley's Corners. That Mrs. Hall made a mis- 
take about the date of Standish's death is 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 101 

not important. She speaks of him as *'Miles" 
"the first." 

It will be observed, then, that the 
tradition about the three-cornered stones 
was in Duxbury before 1887, when Mrs. 
Jane G. Austin says it arose. 

As the document in Miss Hall's posses- 
sion was of some value, and as something 
might happen to destroy it, Mr. Stillman 
B. Pratt, the publisher of the Duxbury 
Pilgrim, and I on a visit at Miss Hall's house, 
asked her permission to have two attested 
copies taken of the record. To our request 
she gladly consented. We called in Mr. 
George H. Steams, the Postmaster of Dux- 
bury, who was also a Justice of the Peace, 
and we secured two attested copies of the 
following : — 

"Duxbury, Mass., April 14, 1892. 
To Whom it may concern: — 

This is to certify that among the private 
and choice papers of my mother, Ruth 
(Josselyn) Hall, the following record in her 
own handwriting, came into my possession 
at her death on March 1, 1873: 
Copy of Record 

'Miles Standish, 1660, the first, was 
buried in the old grave yard. Two three 
comer stones to his grave.' 

(Signed by Miss Hall.) 

Plymouth ss. Duxbury, Mass., April 
14, 1892. 



102 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Personally appeared the above named 
Miss Hall and made oath of the truth of 
the above statement. 

GEORGE H. STEARNS, 

Justice of the Peace. 
Witnesses: 

Stillman B. Pratt, publisher of Duxbury 
Pilgrim. 

E. J. V. HUIGINN." 

Miss Hall, as said, had added to her 
mother's record the words, "As told by 
Benjamin Prior, who was born in 1775." 

Mr. Pratt took one of the copies of the 
above attested record, and I have the other 
in my possession. Miss Hall promised me 
the scrap-book for the town of Duxbury, 
and after her death it was placed with other 
articles she gave in the Duxbtiry Library. 

We now come to Mrs. Hall's version 
of the Doctor Wadsworth testimony. I con- 
sider Mrs. Hall's testimony of greater value 
than Mrs. Loring's about the same evidence, 
for Mrs. Hall was more deeply interested, 
and always lived in Duxbury near the cem- 
etery. 

Mrs. Ruth Standish Hall, whose maiden 
name was Ruth Standish Josselyn, died in 
1873 at the advanced age of 94 years. Mrs. 
Hall lived at Hall's Comer, being the wife 
of Captain Daniel Hall, and the mother 
of Miss Caroline B. Hall, who now lives 
in the Hall homestead at Hall's Comer, 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 103 

Duxbury. Mrs. Hall was the daughter of 
Olive Stan dish (husband's name Josselyn), 
who was the daughter of David Standish, 
who was the son of Thomas Standish, who 
was the son of Alexander, the eldest surviving 
son of the Captain. Mrs. Hall was a woman 
of remarkable brightness of mind until the 
time of her death, and her memory was 
unfailing. Mrs. Hall often told her daughter, 
Miss Caroline B. Hall, and others that the 
burial place of Standish was marked with 
two triangular pyramidal stones. When she 
was a yoimg girl she was visiting at the house 
of Doctor John Wadsworth (who was bom 
in 1706 and died in 1799), and she heard 
him invite two gentlemen who were visiting 
him to go with him and see the grave of 
Myles Standish. After the gentlemen and the 
Doctor had returned to the Doctor's home, 
Mrs. Hall, at that time unmarried, heard the 
Doctor and his guests speak of the strange 
stones that marked the burial place, and heard 
the Doctor express his surprise that two 
such stones, triangular pyramids, could have 
been found for that purpose. This tradition 
Mrs. Hall frequently mentioned. 

It is to be observed that Miss Josselyn 
(later Mrs. Hall) did not accompany the 
Doctor and his guests. Her testimony is 
to the fact that the Doctor and his guests 
identified the burial place of Standish with 
two triangular pyramidal stones. 



104 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Let us now examine the value of this 
tradition. If it were false, a proof could 
easily be supplied by digging in the place 
pointed out. If it were true, the graves 
would agree in their testimony with the 
testimony of the Captain's will. Dr. Wads- 
worth could have had no inducement to 
tell a lie about the matter. 

But what positive value has Doctor 
John Wadsworth's testimony? His testi- 
mony is of value in proportion to his op- 
portimities of knowing the truth, and his 
power of remembering it and handing it 
down. 

That Doctor John Wadsworth was a 
capable and trustworthy witness, all ad- 
mit. He was considered one of the lead- 
ing men of the town in his time. His history 
shows a man of great power and originality. 
He was bom in 1706 and died in 1799. 
He was the great-grandson of Christopher 
Wadsworth, who was one of the most im- 
portant of the first settlers. This Christopher 
was over and over again one of the chief 
officers of the town. His land included all 
the land now occupied by Ellis Peterson, 
Mrs. Thomas Chandler, Mrs. Myrick, George 
Frank Ryder, George Torrey, Fernando Wads- 
worth, and all the land of the farms lying 
inside these farms as well as much that lay 
outside these boimds. Christopher Wads- 
worth was alive in 1677, as his will then made 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 105 

testifies. He lived twenty-one years after 
the death of Standish. He undoubtedly knew 
where Standish was buried. 

Christopher Wadsworth's wife, Grace, 
was alive in 1687. 

Christopher Wadsworth's eldest son, 
Joseph, was alive in 1689. 

All these three would have known of 
the burial place of the Standishes, and 
have told their children about it. 

Christopher's son, Deacon John Wads- 
worth, was bom in 1638 and died in 1700. 
This John was 18 years of age when Standish 
was buried. Of his own knowledge, and 
from his father, mother, and others of the 
older people, he would most certainly have 
known the burial place of Standish. The 
wife of this Deacon John was Abigail Andrews, 
who died in 1723. This Deacon John was 
the grandfather of Dr. John Wadsworth. So 
far then the Wadsworths had every oppor- 
tunity of knowing all about the last resting 
place of Captain Standish. 

The father of Doctor John Wadsworth, 
was Deacon John Wadsworth the second, 
the son of the first Deacon John. 

This John the second married Mercy 
Wiswall, the daughter of Rev. Ichabod Wis- 
wall, who had been minister to the town 
from 1676 to 1700. Deacon John the second 
died in 1750. He would have had the tradi- 
tion in a direct line from his grandmother, 



106 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

his grandfather, his father, and other living 
witnesses of the Captain's funeral. When 
this second Deacon Wads worth died, his 
son, Dr. John, was 44 years of age, and was 
capable of receiving the tradition, and of 
handing it down. When Doctor John's grand- 
mother died, the Doctor was 17 years of age. 
We might add the evidence of Elisha Wads- 
worth, who was alive after 1714 and whose 
wife died 1741. This Elisha was the son 
of Joseph, the eldest son of Christopher, the 
fotmder of the family in Duxbury. We 
might also add the testimony of Captain 
Wait Wadsworth, the son of Elisha, who 
was alive as late as 1768. 

So much for Wadsworth evidence. But 
Doctor John could have learned of the 
burial place of the Captain from many 
others. 

Mrs. Alexander Standish, the wife of 
Standish's eldest son, was alive 1723. She 
would have known from her husband, who 
died in 1702, where the Captain was buried. 
And so of others. But the wife of Doctor 
John was Mary Alden, who was the daughter 
of Benjamin, the son of David, the son of 
John Alden. Now John Alden died in 1687, 
thirty-one years after the death of Standish. 
Alden would have known where Standish was 
buried. His son, David, was thirty years of 
age when Standish died. He, too, would 
have known where the Captain was buried. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 107 

Mary Alden would thus have known through 
her grandfather, great-grandfather, and 
others, relatives and friends, where Standish 
and his daughters were buried. Thus Doctor 
Wadsworth would have the very best evidence 
on his own side and on his wife's as to the 
burial place of Myles Standish. David Alden 
here mentioned was bom in 1626 and was 
alive in 1679; his brother, Jonathan Alden, 
was born in 1627 and died in 1697, and 
Abigail, the wife of Jonathan, died in 1725. 
Here are many other links connecting the 
generation of Dr. Wadsworth with the genera- 
tion alive in the time of Standish. The 
links could be multiplied many times over. 

From this it will be seen that Doctor 
Wadsworth had the very best opportunities 
for knowing about Standish's burial place, 
and from all we can learn the Doctor was a 
very reliable witness. His evidence was that 
Standish was buried in the south-eastern 
part of the town, in a well-known graveyard, 
and that two triangular pyramids of stone 
marked the burial place. This evidence of the 
stones can be found only in the graveyard be- 
tween Hall's and Bayley's Corners. All the 
traditions are verified there . The graves them- 
selves speak in evidence. When Doctor Wads- 
worth died, Mrs. Ruth Hall was twenty 
years of age. Mrs. Hall, being a direct 
descendant of Standish, would take a deeper 
interest in all traditions about him than 



108 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

most people, and she handed down to her 
daughter and others the testimony she had re- 
ceived from Dr. John Wadsworth. 

Miss Carohne B. Hall, above mentioned, 
died in April, 1892; the writer attended her 
funeral. 



CHAPTER X 

The second line of testimony trans- 
mitted through Mrs. Hall is that coming 
from the Prior family. The Priors lived 
aroimd the first church. One of them, Ben- 
jamin Prior, bought the old church when 
it was sold in 1707. The Prior family always 
lived in that part of the town around the 
old graveyard between Hall's and Bayley's 
Comers. The Prior tradition is, that Myles 
Standish was buried in the old graveyard 
just mentioned, and that his burial place 
was marked by two triangular, pyramidal 
stones. The Priors would have known the 
Standishes, and the Wadsworths, and the 
Aldens, and the Brewsters, and all the other 
families. They all attended the same church, 
and the same town meetings in the church, 
and they would have frequently talked of 
the Captain and his burial place. There 
were then no newspapers, no great number 
of books, to distract attention, and the 
families gathered aroimd the log fires in 
the evenings would have talked over the 
first settlers and their lives and deaths. 
Thus the knowledge of Standish's grave 
would be general. Thus in every sense 
the evidence would be tested. 

The Prior tradition is clear and strong. 



110 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Benjamin Prior, the last of the family 
who inherited the family place, was bom 
in 1775 and died in 1867. He told Mrs. 
Ruth Hall that Standish was buried be- 
tween Hall's and Bayley's Comers, in the 
old cemetery, and that two triangular, pyra- 
midal stones marked the place. Mrs. Hall 
wrote this testimony in her scrap-book where 
it is yet to be seen. Mr. Prior told Mrs. 
Hall that the Prior family always held the 
above tradition, which came down from 
his great-grandfather, who was a boy of 
ten years of age when Standish died, and who 
handed down the tradition concerning the 
grave with the added circumstance that he, 
only a boy of ten years of age, remembered 
the funeral, which took place in the grave- 
yard near his father's home. This evidence 
coming from young Prior (who, as he grew 
older, would have most abundant oppor- 
tunities for having the independent testimony 
of the Standishes, the Aldens, the Wads- 
worths, the Brewsters, the Spragues, etc., 
etc.) is of great value. The location of his 
father's home was such as to give the boy an 
opportunity of seeing the funeral, and week 
by week as he went to service, or as he went 
to the town meetings in later life, he would 
have been reminded of the funeral he had 
seen when a boy. It must be borne in mind 
that we are not dependent on the evidence, 
of the boy, Prior, simply as a boy, in this 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 111 

matter. His evidence, confirmed by his elders 
and handed down afterwards to his son, then 
to his grandson, and finally to his great- 
grandson, comes to us with every mark 
of weight and authority. The Benjamin 
Prior, who told the family tradition to Mrs. 
Hall, was bom in 1775 and died in 1867. His 
father was bom in 1740, his grandfather 
in 1699, and his great-grandfather in 1646. 
Each of these was named Benjamin. There 
could have been no inducement for any of 
the Priors to tell a lie about the burial place 
of Standish. The lie could be easily de- 
tected by opening the graves. The graves 
were opened, and, as we shall see, everything 
proved the truth of the tradition here given. 
Another tradition is that of the Brewster 
family. The Brewsters lived near Standish, 
and they would have known of the Captain's 
burial place. Mr. Melzar Brewster (a direct 
descendant of the Elder), who lives to the 
east of the old cemetery near Hall's Comer, 
told the tradition of the family, received 
from his father and grandfather, that Stan- 
dish was buried in the old cemetery between 
Hall's and Bayley's Corners. This, Mr. Mel- 
zar Brewster said, was the constant tradition 
in the Brewster family; and besides he said 
that all the old people of the town, whom he 
remembered, always said that this old ceme- 
tery was the only cemetery in the early 
town, and the oldest one in town. He also 



112 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 



testified to the tradition about the two 
triangular stones. 

The tradition in the Faunce family is 
the same. The Faunces bought the farm 
of Myles Standish within three years after 
the great-grandson of Myles had sold it. 
For one hundred years at least the Faunces 
held this farm. Their tradition is, that 
the first church and churchyard were where 
the old cemetery now is, near Hall's Comer, 
that Myles Standish was buried there, that 
there never was a chtirch or churchyard 
in any other part of the town until 1783 or 
1784, and that the day on which Standish 
was buried was the stormiest day the new 
town had felt from its foundation. This 
last circumstance would fiix the minds of 
the people on the funeral of the Captain. 

The traditions are all clear and well de- 
fined, having been cherished in the families 
that lived near Standish and around the 
graveyard. It is impossible to find a tradition 
of any antiquity or value assigning any 
other place as the burial place of Standish. 

The traditions about the Standish burial 
place exclude the notion that Standish was 
buried elsewhere than in the cemetery be- 
tween Hairs and Bayley's Comers. 

From several of the older people in town 
I frequently heard the statement that the 
day of the Captain's funeral was the stormiest 
day the Pilgrims had known in New England. 



CHAPTER XI 

Besides those already mentioned as hav- 
ing been alive at the time of the funeral 
of Standish and as being most likely to know 
all about it, we may also mention the follow- 
ing persons who lived in the town at the time. 
These persons would have known where 
Standish was buried, and would have served 
as witnesses to transmit the tradition. 

Robert Barker, who was admitted a free- 
man of Duxbury in 1654, and died between 
1689 and 1692, the dates of his will and of 
the inventory of his estate. 

Benjamin Bartlett, who was admitted 
in 1654, and married Sarah Brewster; he 
died in 1691. 

William Bassett, who died in 1669, and 
had land near the Nook, beside Sprague's 
land. 

Thomas Boney, the town shoemaker, 
admitted in 1640 and died about 1693. 
Shoemakers heard all town news. 

Major William Bradford born in 1624 
and died in 1703. 

Deacon William Brewster, (son of Love 
Brewster), who died in 1723, being seventy- 
eight years of age. 

Wrestling Brewster, son of Love Brew- 
ster, died in 1697. Love Brewster, the father 



114 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

of Deacon William and of Wrestling, married 
in 1634, and he had Nathaniel, William, 
Wrestling, and Sarah. Sarah married Ben- 
jamin Bartlettin 1656, the year Standish died. 

There were several members of the 
Chandler family alive when Standish was 
buried and for many years afterwards. 

Thomas Clark, who arrived in 1623 and 
died in 1697, at the age of 97 years. 

Mr. WilHam Collier died about 1671. 

Philip Delano admitted in 1632, died 
about 1681. His son, Philip, was bom about 
1635, and lived to be over eighty years 
of age; his son, Thomas, was bom about 
1636 or 1637, and was alive in 1699, when 
he married his second wife, his first wife 
having been a daughter of John Alden. John, 
the son of the first Philip, was born about 
or before 1640, and was alive in 1690. Samuel, 
another son, born a little after 1640, married 
Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Standish, 
and was alive in 1686 and later. 

William Ford, who lived in Duxbury as 
early as 1643 and died 1676, aged 82 years. 

Josiah Holmes married Hannah, daughter 
of Henry Sampson, and he was alive in 1679. 

John Howland died in 1672, aged eighty 
years. His wife, EHzabeth Tillie died 1687, 
aged eighty-one years. 

Henry Howland, of Duxbury in 1633, 
died in 1670. He was one of the substan- 
tial freemen of the town. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 115 

John Pabodie, of Dtixbtiry in 1637, 
died about 1666. His son William was born 
in 1620; he was "a man much employed in 
public affairs and of much respectability." 

William married Elizabeth Alden in 1644 
and died in 1707 aged 87 years. She died 
in 1717 in Little Compton, aged 93 years. 
William Pabodie lived near Standish and 
Brewster, and had thirteen children, eleven 
being daughters. One daughter, Priscilla, 
married Rev. Mr. Wiswall; she died in 1720. 

George Partridge was a yeoman in 1636. 
He married Sarah Tracy in 1638, and died 
about 1695. His daughter, Lydia, married 
Deacon William Brewster and died in 1743. 
His daughter, Triephosa, married Samuel 
West. Samuel died in 1689; Triephosa died 
in 1701. Another daughter married Rho- 
dolphus Thacher. 

John Rogers, of Duxbury in 1634, was 
alive in 1660, the date of his will. His son, 
John, died about 1696; this son had married 
Elizabeth Pabodie in 1666; she was bom in 
1647. 

Henry Sampson, who came to Duxbury 
with Standish and lived near him, and whose 
son Caleb married Mercy, daughter of Alex- 
ander Standish, died in 1684. Henry's son, 
Stephen, lived in Duxbury and died in 1714. 

Abraham Sampson, a freeman in 1654, 
was alive in 1686. He lived in Duxbury 
from 1638. His son, Abraham, married Sarah, 



116 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

daughter of Alexander Standish, and this 
son was aHve long after 1690. Isaac Samp- 
son, son of the first Abraham, married an- 
other daughter of Alexander Standish; he 
died in 1726. 

Members of the Seabiny, Simmons, and 
Soule families were also in town at Standish's 
death, and lived many years after that 
event. 

Constant Southworth, bom 1615, mar- 
ried Elizabeth Collier in 1637; died in 1679. 
He was in town when Standish died. 

Francis Sprague, admitted in 1637, was 
alive in 1666. His son, John, who married 
Ruth Bassett, was killed in 1676. 

Alexander Standish, the eldest surviving 
son of Myles, died in 1702, and his second 
wife in 1723. 

Captain Josias Standish, son of Myles, 
lived in Duxbury. After a time he went to 
Bridgewater, but returned to Duxbury in 
1663. Finally he left Duxbury in 1686 and 
went to Norwich, Conn. 

Myles Standish, son of Alexander, lived 
in Duxbury and died in 1739. His wife, 
Experience, died in 1743 or 1744. 

Ebenezer, a son of Alexander Standish, 
died in 1734, being 62 years of age. 

Myles Standish, the son of Myles, the 
son of Alexander, the son of the Captain, 
was bom in 1714, inherited the homestead, 
and in 1763 sold it to Samuel and Sylvanus 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 117 

Drew, who sold to Wait Wadsworth, who 
sold it to John Faunce. 

Rhodolphus Thacher, who married Ruth 
Partridge, was alive in 1686. 

From all these names, and many others 
might be added, it will be seen that very- 
many witnesses would have been able to 
hand down the tradition of the fimeral 
and burial place of Standish. Undoubtedly 
these people often spoke of the brave Captain 
and told all of his life and death they knew. 
The chain of evidence could not be stronger. 
It is well to observe the dates and the inter- 
marriages in the above list. 



I 



CHAPTER XII 



We now come to the graves. For a 
great many years the old cemetery was 
neglected. There were no fences aroimd 
it and roaming cattle strayed over it. An 
end was put to this worse than indifference 
by the Rural Society of Duxbury. The 
Society sent a man to repair the fences and 
to clean up the graveyard. Mr. Melzar 
Brewster did this, and did it well. When 
at work Mr. Brewster found two stones 
marking the burial place of Lora Standish; 
they were covered with sand. Mr. Brewster 
raised them to the surface in the exact places 
where he foimd them 

The Duxbury Rural Society at last 
determined to test the tradition about the 
three-cornered stones, and obtained per- 
mission from the selectmen of Duxbury to 
open the grave marked by the two pyra- 
midal stones. Mr. Frederick B. Knapp of 
the Powder Point School was the President 
of the Rural Society and had charge of the 
investigating party. One day in April, 1889, 
Monday the 15th, I think, the following were 
present at the opening of two of the graves: 
Mr. Frederick B. Knapp, Mrs. Frederick 
B. Knapp, Miss Lucia A. Bradford, Miss 
Caroline B. Hall, all of Diixbury; Miss 




2; 

w 

> 

Pi 

O 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 119 

Knapp of Plymouth, Miss Ford of Duxbury, 
Mr. C. N. B. Wheeler and Mr. Rounseville 
of Powder Point School, Mr. Sidney Lawrence 
of Pittsburg, Pa., Mr. Charles M. Gaines 
of Duxbury, Professor A. B. Hart of Harvard 
College, Mr. C. M. Doten of the well known 
paper, the Old Colony Memorial of Plymouth, 
and Doctor Jones of Kingston, Mass. 

The first grave opened was that between 
the two stones, where the skeleton of a 
young woman was found. Next adjoining 
it, on the north side, another opening was 
made and the skeleton of a man was found. 
The party then discontinued the work. Some 
thought that the man's skeleton was that of 
Standish and others thought it was not; 
nothing definite came of the effort, except 
to prove that the skeletons of a woman and 
a man were there. 

All this investigation took place before 
I came to Duxbury. When I had collected 
all the evidence I could about the location 
of the grave of Standish, I came to the con- 
clusion that his skeleton was that found 
in the second grave opened in April, 1889, 
by the Duxbury Rural Society. At the 
same time some of those present on that day 
in April felt and said that the body was 
not that of Standish. However, I did not 
feel discouraged, and my friend. Dr. W. G. 
Brown, shared my hopes and enthusiasms. 
Standish's will would indicate that he was 



120 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

buried as conveniently near as possible to 
his daughter and his daughter-in-law. I 
concluded that the searching party of 1889 
ought to have opened more graves, and 
found out if another young woman's skeleton 
lay near the man's. It is strange, when you 
think of it, that a company of educated, 
thoughtful people should have discontinued 
the search just at the moment when their 
efforts would have been crowned by success. 
However, the Duxbury Rural Society pre- 
pared the way for the full accomplishment 
of their desires, and I am glad to say that 
they all seemed perfectly satisfied, when 
all the facts were brought to light, that the 
burial-place was indeed that of Standish 
and his family. If the Rural Society had 
not employed Mr. Melzar Brewster to clean 
up the old cemetery, the stones might not 
have been found; some one not so careful 
as Mr. Brewster might have displaced them. 
Mr. Brewster shared in the accomplishment 
of what we all sought to do. 

My evidence being all prepared, I was 
anxious to get permission to open the graves. 
This was the state of the evidence regarding 
the deaths in Captain Standish's family, 
including his own, in 1656: his daughter, 
Lora; his daughter-in-law, Mary (Dingley) 
Standish; two boys, Charles and John, and, 
of course, the Captain himself. If the graves 
were opened we ought very certainly to find 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 121 

the skeletons of two young women near 
the skeleton of an old pian. What more 
we might find we could only conjecture. 
Luckily the evidence about the deaths of 
the boys had been discovered by me during 
my researches, and the finding of their little 
skeletons was a wonderful re-inforcement 
by evidence from the graves of the evidence 
from history and tradition, that here we 
had the last resting-place of Captain Myles 
Standish and his children. 

It was in April, 1891, that Doctor Brown 
and the writer asked permission from the 
selectmen of Duxbury to open the graves 
as we desired. We explained to them the 
evidence that had come to light, and the 
selectmen very kindly gave us the desired 
permission. Of course, we promised that 
every reverence would be shown the remains, 
and that only a selected number of witnesses 
would be on hand. Accordingly on Sattirday, 
the 25th April, 1891, the following persons 
met around the graves: Mrs, Frederick B. 
Knapp, Miss Ford, Miss Florence Ford, 
Miss Stella Jacobs, Miss Zilpha Loring, 
Miss Clara H. Sampson, Miss Bartlett, (after- 
wards Mrs. C. N. B. Wheeler), Dr. Wilfred 
G. Brown, Professor C. N. B. Wheeler, 
Mr. Charles Bartlett and E. J. V. Huiginn, 
all of Duxbury, Mr. Logan Waller Page of 
Richmond, Virginia, and Mr. C. M. Doten 
of the Old Colony Memorial, Plymouth, 



122 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

who came later in the afternoon. The gentle- 
men above named opened a long and deep 
trench south of and at right angles to the 
grave of the young woman (Lora Standish) 
whose grave is marked by the two stones. 
No trace of a grave was found; the soil 
was hard for its nature, the deep layers of 
sand seemed never to have been disturbed. 
We next turned our attention to the 
grave north of the man's grave, at what we 
supposed would be the natural distance 
between graves in the same lot, when we 
fotmd the skeleton of a young woman. She 
had a great coil of shimmering brown hair 
which seemed to be full of the healthy gloss 
of life, and a perfect set of most beautiful 
teeth, not one missing; in the front the 
teeth overlapped a little, just enough, per- 
haps, to make them seem, if anything, more 
strikingly healthy and strong than if they 
were in absolutely straight lines. There was 
not the least scratch on the teeth, nor were 
the edges in the least worn by usage, the 
enamel on the edges being sharp and entire. 
The finger nails, small and rounded, were 
in place, and parts of the winding-sheet 
and some of the little black pins used in 
fastening it were also found. From all in- 
dications the body was that of a young woman 
who had arrived at maturity. The Doctor 
said that the teeth indicated that she was 
at least eighteen years of age, for she had 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 123 

all the teeth an adult of eighteen generally 
has, and the teeth, not being frayed or worn 
in any way, showed that she could not have 
been much over eighteen years of age. This 
was the skeleton of Mary (Dingley) Standish. 
Notwithstanding all the evidence thus 
brought to light, Doctor Brown and I had 
a feeling that we should like to open the 
ground north of Mary Standish's grave, 
and also the two other graves at whose 
opening we had not been present in 1889. 
We wanted to see for ourselves what evidence 
for age, size, or physical characteristics, we 
could gather from the remains in those 
graves opened in 1889. With this end in 
view we again sought permission from the 
selectmen to continue our work in the ceme- 
tery. We obtained the desired permission, 
and on Tuesday, 12th May, 1891, the follow- 
ing persons were present in the little cemetery : 
— Mrs. Frederick B. Knapp, Miss Ford, 
Miss Clara H. Sampson, Miss Stella Jacobs, 
all of Duxbury; Miss Ellen L. Sampson 
of Newton, Mass.; also. Dr. Wilfred G. 
Brown and Mr. Frederick B. Knapp, ^ of 
Duxbury; Mr. Logan Waller Page of Rich- 
mond, Virginia; Mr. Frederick Stout of Au- 
burn, New York; Mr. Hosmer K. Arnold 
of Portland, Oregon; and Mr. Hammond 
Braman of Cohasset, Massachusetts; Mr. 
C. M. Doten of the Old Colony Memorial 
of Plymouth came a little later, also Miss 



124 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Caroline B. Hall. The writer, too, was 
present. 

We opened the groiind in what was 
evidently the same lot, and north of the 
grave of the young woman with the brown 
hair, when we found the bodies of two boys. 
One of these boys, the one next to Mary 
Dingley Standish, was, from all indications, 
about nine years of age. Dr. Brown said 
the size of the bones gave a fair indication 
of his age; the second growth of teeth was 
coming in, crushing out the first set; several 
of the new teeth were in place, and in several 
places the two rows of teeth were present, 
both the new ones and the old; the hair 
still on the head, was cropped short. Every- 
thing showed that it was a boy's skeleton. 
The other child, lying in a grave north of 
the boy's grave just described, was younger, 
and Doctor Brown said that from the bones 
and teeth he would conclude that the child 
was at least three or four years of age, and 
might be five or six. The Doctor and all 
present considered this smaller skeleton to 
be also that of a boy; all the indications, 
as the cropped hair, pointed that way. 

To the north of the second boy's grave, 
we opened a trench of several feet and probed 
the groimd above, and through the sides of 
the trench, with sharp-pointed iron bars, 
and we could find no indication of another 
grave in the vicinity of these five. It may 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 125 

not be known that what we may call virgin 
ground will offer far greater resistance to 
a sharp-pointed bar or other instrument 
than groimd that has been opened up at 
any time. In the little cemetery, there 
never was any digging except for the making 
of graves, and the graves can be rather 
easily located by this method. 

Having fully satisfied ourselves that there 
were no more graves north of the little boy's 
in the lot, (we searched for a distance of 
several feet), we turned our attention to 
the graves of the man and the young woman 
on his right hand, lying to the south of his 
grave. All the bodies lay with their heads 
to the west. 

And first, as to the man's skeleton. 
Every care was taken not to disturb the 
position of the remains as they lay in the 
ground. We were so particular about the 
matter, that when we reached the first 
appearance of the coffin, all larger tools 
were dropped and the sand was removed by 
small shovels or scoops, and even with the 
hands. When the remains were fully ex- 
posed, the skeleton was found in a wonderful 
state of preservation. All the large bones 
were there and almost all the little^ ones. 
The body was measured as it lay in the 
grave and it measured five feet seven inches; 
this is the same measurement as that taken 
in 1889. The Doctor took charge of ex- 



3Z GSATBS or MYUBS STANTISH 



'"r:-- birh. There 



-^ 



,rDer 






I^' 





rS£ ^^1 -.~ Iff 3im25 



lKI 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 127 

notes I have now before me. Some measure- 
ments of the Captain's skull were taken 
by Doctor Brown in 1891; the skull was 21 
inches above the occipital protuberance, it was 
21J^ inches around, it was 143/^ inches over 
the parietal bone from the bottom of the 
petrus portion of the parietal bone. Photo- 
graphs were taken of the skull, for it struck 
all of us as being pectiliarly shaped. There 
were some descendants of Standish at the 
grave and, knowing them personally, I drew 
attention to the similarity in the formation 
of the heads. Of course, I did this with 
all due apologies, and I was repaid for my 
observation by the politeness and courtesy 
of those to whom I referred, for one of them 
at least allowed the Doctor to examine 
the shape of her head; it was Miss Caroline 
B. Hall. The formations were very similar, 
the Doctor said. 

Both I and others have observed that 
the same characteristics in the formation of 
the head are found today in several of the 
living descendants of the Captain. We 
placed the remains in a new coffin and re- 
buried with all due reverence all that was 
left of the famous Captain of Plymouth. 
Large parts of the original coffin were in a 
good state of preservation, the boards being 
quite thick; these, of course, we placed in 
the grave about and on top of the new coffin; 
fragments of the winding-sheet were foimd, 



128 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

and some of those present thought they could 
discover lines of coloring in the material. 
I read part of the burial service from the 
book of Common Prayer, as we all felt 
unusually quiet and even solemn. Here were 
the remains of the man who had done so 
much for Plymouth Colony and consequently 
for all of us. The man who could wield 
Gideon, and face Pecksuot in the hand-to- 
hand fight in the little house or hut at Wes- 
sagusset, needed to be strong, determined, 
courageous. His remains indicated these 
qualities. 

On the same day we also opened the 
grave on the Captain's right hand; this 
had been opened in 1889, and was the grave 
between the two famous pyramidal stones. 
The body measured five feet two inches as 
it lay in the ground : this is the same measure- 
ment that was taken in 1889. It was more 
than evident that this was the body of a 
young woman. She had a splendid coil of 
light-colored hair; she had all the teeth 
an adult of eighteen years usually has; not 
one was missing. These teeth were per- 
fect and looked like pearls for finish; there 
was not a scratch on them, nor was the 
enamel on the edges or elsewhere in the 
least worn; the edges were not flattened 
at all by usage. From the fact that she had 
all the teeth an adult of about eighteen 
years of age usually has, it was evident she 




AND OTHER PILGRIMS 129 

must have been about that age, and from 
the fact that there was no sign of wear 
on the teeth, she could not have been much 
older. 

The formation of the skull of this young 
woman was exactly like the formation of 
the skiill of the man on her left, — broad 
between the ears, long from the front of the 
forehead to the back of the head, protruding 
quite a distance behind the nape of the 
neck, with a broad, low forehead. Every- 
one remarked the very striking similarity 
in the shape of these two skulls. Parts 
of the winding-sheet were found, and, as 
it were, of a veil or lighter fabric about the 
head, while some thought they observed lines 
f color running through the remnants of 
ae winding-sheet. We placed the remains 
xn a new coffin, and re-buried them with all 
due reverence. We all were convinced that 
this was the resting-place of Lora Standish. 
The sktdl of the yoimg woman on the 
Captain's left hand was totally unlike the 
Captain's and Lora's in conformation. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Having possession of the evidence from 
the graves, let us see how this evidence 
corresponds with the facts about the Standish 
family. 

From Standish's will we know that he 
was to be buried beside his daughter, Lora, 
and his daughter-in-law, Mary. From the 
same source we conclude that his son, John, 
died yoimg. But we can prove that Charles 
and John died young, even apart from the 
will. In the lists of the freemen of the 
town, in the lists of those who were sixteen 
years of age made at various times, and in 
the lists of those admitted to the freedom 
of the town, there is no mention of the names 
of Charles and John Standish. The list 
of those who were sixteen years of age in 
1643 contains the name of Alexander Standish. 
This list may be seen in volimie eight, page 
190, of the Plymouth Colony Records. Mr. 
Justin Winsor gives the list on page 92 of 
his History of Duxbury, but omits the name 
of Alexander Standish. We know that 
Charles and John Standish were bom be- 
fore the 22d May, 1627, and this list of 
persons between sixteen and sixty years of 
age capable of bearing arms was drawn up 
in August, 1643. If Charles and John were 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 131 

then alive and capable of bearing arms 
they would have been mentioned. It is 
probable that they were dead before this 
time. Their names are mentioned only once 
in the old records and that is in 1627. These 
boys were alive in 1627, and very soon the 
Captain moved to Dtixbury. All the prob- 
abilities are that these boys died in Duxbury 
and were buried in the graveyard in Dtixbury. 
It must be borne in mind that the burial 
place of these boys is not of direct importance 
in the question about the Captain's grave. 
We are simply concerned to find an old man 
buried near two young women, and the 
traditions about the burial place of Standish 
point out these graves. 

From the skeletons we see that the 
young women found in the traditional burying 
place were, according to the evidence from 
the graves, about eighteen years of age 
and could not have been much more. Let 
us now examine the evidence about the 
ages of Lora and Mary Standish. 

Lora Standish was not born before the 
22nd May, 1627. This we know. After 
that date several children were bom 
to Standish; at least four were bom, one 
being Lora, and the other three being the 
sons, Myles, Josias, and the second Charles, 
who is mentioned in the will. From the 
records we know that Standish had these 
children, Charles, Alexander, John, Myles, 



132 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Josias, Lora, and the Charles mentioned as 
the youngest son in the will. The first 
Charles is mentioned first in the formal list 
given of the allotment of cattle on pages 
50-57 of 

'Tlimoths great book of deeds of land 
Enrolled: from An°. 1627 to An°. 1651" 
It is in this record that Captain Standish, 
his wife, Barbara, and his three sons, Charles, 
Alexander, and John, (given in this order), 
are mentioned in the groups to whom the 
cattle were allotted. In the Standish group 
were thirteen persons, and to them were 
allotted a red cow and her calf, (a bull), and 
two she-goats. The bull was to be kept 
for the advantage of all the colonists. That 
the Charles of "Plimoths great book of deeds" 
was not the Charles of the will is very evident 
to anyone considering the claims of Standish 
to large estates in England kept from him, 
though belonging to him by right of his 
birth. Such a man would be a stickler for 
all the forms and rights on which his own 
claims depended. The list of 1627 was, with- 
out question, supplied by himself, and he 
would give the names in the order of their 
birth. This Charles of the 1627 record died 
and John died-, and both of them died, as 
all circumstantial evidence would prove, be- 
fore they became sixteen years of age. They 
are not mentioned in any other record so 
far discovered. They are not on the lists 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 133 

of freemen, of military companies, of land- 
holders, or on any other list. 

The Charles in the 1627 record is the 
oldest born child of the Captain. That is 
plain. No one has the right to go behind 
the records and claim they are wrong. Stan- 
dish was not only the military chief of the 
Colony, but he held magisterial positions, 
as we know, and even officiated at marriages. 
He would have submitted the list of his 
own family. He would have been one of 
the men advising in the question of the 
allotment of cattle. He would have been 
acquainted with the order of the names on 
the list. Their leading men, as Edward 
Winslow and Morton, would have known that 
he belonged to a distinguished family, and 
he would have been treated with all courtesy, 
although it is certain he would not have 
claimed any exemptions from the customary 
laws and regulations of the colonists. I 
do not see any justification whatever for the 
list of the Captain's family as given by 
Charles Henry Pope in his book. Mr. Pope 
places the children of the 1627 list in this 
order: Alexander, Charles, Myles. Why? 
For no good historical reason, for all the 
history we have is against this arrangement, 
and if one throws doubt on the record as 
given in 'Tlimoths great book of deeds," 
then one has no authority to rest on in the 
matter. I would suspect the quotations and 



134 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

authority of any writer who would so change 
such valuable records as those of 'Tlimoths 
great book." But I feel that Mr. Pope was 
led to make this arrangement of the children's 
names because it never entered his head that 
the Charles of the 1627 record and the 
Charles of the will were different children. 
If the Charles of the will were the same as 
the Charles of 1627, then in the will he ought 
to have been mentioned first, as the heir 
of the Captain's hereditary lands, and as 
receiving the double portion of land in New 
England. But the Charles of the will is 
mentioned as the youngest of the four sons 
living at the date of the will, and he is not 
even mentioned as an executor. Why not, 
unless he is either very sickly, or mentally 
unbalanced, or under age, or imder the 
severe displeasure of his father? This last 
supposition is out of all question, considering 
the affection and deep religious feeling shown 
in the will. Even if he were sick or mentally 
imbalanced, the father would have mentioned 
' his name at least before the names of Myles 
and Josias in the will, for the Charles of 1627 
was certainly older than Myles or Josias. 
You cannot tamper with the record of the 
^Tlimoth great book," nor with the record 
of the Captain's will. You will have to 
sustain them and reconcile them in the 
most natural and obvious way. Is there 
such a way? There certainly is. Governor 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 135 

Bradford gives us this record of Standish's 
family. We shall let the record speak for 
itself. He says twice in the body of his 
report that he is writing it after he had 
seen thirty years completed in the new world. 
Here is his statement about the Standishes: — 

"Captain Standish his wife dyed in 
the first sicknes, and he maried againe, 
and hath 4. sones liveing, and some are 
dead." 

Who are the four sons living in 1651? 
Doubtless, the four mentioned in the will, 
Alexander, Myles, Josias, and Charles. 

Who are included in the "some are dead?" 
Without question, more than one son was 
dead. It is my persuasion that the Charles 
and John of the record of 1627 were dead 
before Bradford penned his record at the 
end of his life of thirty years in the colony. 
When you carefully read that list given by 
Bradford, I am certain you will agree with 
me that I am not straining the records to 
bear out my views. I am altogether certain 
that I was the first person to draw attention 
to the two boys of the same name, Charles, 
the disappearance of the one, and the most 
unaccountable complication that arises in 
the case of both, unless we find a satisfactory 
explanation. That explanation is simple. 
The first Charles, the first-bom son of the 
Captain, died when young, and John died when 
young, and these two are included in Brad- 



136 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

ford*s concise statement that Standish "hath 
4. sones Hveing, and some are dead." We 
ask, some what? Some sons, very clearly; 
at least two. As the years went by and 
other sons were bom, the Captain and his 
wife, remembering their first-bom, the heir 
of all his estates and rights in England had 
he lived, called their yoimgest son by the 
same name. It is often done, very often 
done, as we know. In this way the records are 
shown to be correct, and the Charles of the 
will as the youngest son, most probably not yet 
of age, is given his due place by his father in 
the will as the youngest of his four surviving 
sons. Had the Charles of the record of 1627 
been alive, he would undoubtedly have been 
the lawful heir of all the Captain's hereditary 
rights. Had he been alive, and if we were 
even to allow that he was not the first-bom 
son, (we contend he was) he would certainly 
have been mentioned in the will before Myles 
and Josias. I am confident that Mr. Pope 
made his mistake through not being able 
to reconcile the statement of the will that, 
when it was made, Alexander was the eldest 
surviving son and lawful heir of the Captain's 
hereditary rights, and Charles placed as the 
youngest. Mr. Pope saw the one he believed 
to be the oldest son, the Charles of 1627, 
placed in the position of the youngest son 
in the will. I confess that this difficulty 
puzzled me not a little in 1891, but not 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 137 

being bound to prove a theory, and not 
feeling free to tamper with the records, I 
concluded that the first-bom son, Charles, 
died in youth, as well as John, and that in 
loving remembrance of their first child his 
parents called a younger son by the same 
name. 

I feel in a way disappointed that a 
member of the Standish family should have 
adopted Mr. Pope's arrangement of the 
births in the Captain's family; it is un- 
warranted. It makes all docimientary evi- 
dence valueless, or at least has a large 
tendency that way. Perhaps it was thought 
that there was a point to be made from the 
language of the Captain's will, where he 
says in paragraph five, ''My will is that my 
eldest son Allexander shall have a double 
share in land," and in the last paragraph 
where he says, "I give unto my son and heire 
aparent Allexander Standish," etc. No point 
could be made from this language, except 
that Alexander was the eldest surviving son 
at the date of the will. But there most 
certainly is no proof whatever that he was 
the first-born son of the Captain. As the 
eldest surviving son at that date ''Allexander" 
was naturally and legally the Captain's heir 
apparent to all his hereditary rights. Maybe 
it was thought desirable for some reason to 
make it appear that the first-bom son of 
the Captain did survive him, and that may 



138 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

have had some influence on those who changed 
the order given in 1627. Personally, I would 
not change a date, nor an order of names, 
given, evidently by the Captain himself, 
for any reason whatever, unless I knew from 
most indisputable sources that the record 
was wrong. 

Let us return to the question of Lora 
Standish's age. 

We have seen that Bradford declares 
that in 1651 Standish had only four children 
living, and these were all sons, the four 
mentioned in the Captain's will. To show 
more clearly the full value of Bradford's 
evidence, we give his own statement about 
his purpose in making this record. On page 
534 of the Bradford History, printed by 
order of the General Court of Massachusetts 
in 1898, we find this statement of Bradford: — 

"And seeing it hath pleased him to 
give me to see 30. years compleated since 
these beginings; and that the great works 
of his providence are to be observed, I have 
thought it not unworthy my paines to take 
a view of the increasings & decreasings of 
these persons, and such changs as hath 
pased over them & theirs, in this thirty 
years. It may be of some use to such as 
come after; but, however, I shall reste in 
my owne benefite. 

*'I will therfore take them in order as 
they lye." 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 139 

Here then we have Governor Bradford's 
distinct statement that thirty years after 
the beginnings of the Colony, he thinks 
it worth while to give a list of the Mayiiower 
Pilgrims and their descendants. In the list 
he records of the Standish family as already 
stated. 

Is it not likely that Bradford knew how 
many children Standish had living? Is it 
not likely that he knew that Lora was already 
dead? He says Standish had only four sons 
living in 1651, after the thirty years had 
been completed. The two words, "are dead," 
are in italics in the printed copy, perhaps in- 
dicating that these words are not in Bradford's 
hand writing, or they may have been under- 
lined in the Mss. by the Governor himself 
for some special reason. No explanation of 
the italics is given. Bradford was Governor 
for most of his years in Plymouth. Standish 
was the military chieftain. Who would say 
that Bradford did not know of the family 
of Standish and the losses he had suffered 
by death? It will not do to say that Bradford 
made the mistake of saying that only twelve 
of the original Mayflower people were alive 
in 1679, as some writers have said. Bradford 
was dead twenty years before that date, 
and some have attributed to him the notes 
added in a different handwriting in 1679. 
Bradford distinctly states in 1650 or 1651, 
when he drew up his list of survivors of the 



:V. THZ C-?-^ . :? MYLES 5TAXDISH 



set It 



■P": 



'. 65i. li It 






Stan- 



... .,, 


J !» l^ ■ fc..i.»\^ 




' - ' ■' ■-•"-'-' ' noivn 




., thitt 




awn tip 


..... 


1651. When 




' 'd; at least 




— ^ Her 


- . . 


still 


" • 


,^ in the latter 


c/r 


m /- ; t. in 1623. 


-"' -- - " 


- ' '" with 




■:- - -.' I ' •. '.\'^;TS. 



WSTc — .•-.-~ ~t^.' z '1~ ILZJtfV mHSu miV^ I« 



lu ~ " -- i Seem T-1J.I - rzi^iu siy her^. 

cie:i-.:t:e.i -n t±:e liZciziiem cf c^Tuie in loZT. 

_ - - - ^-~~:t~. ~ : -""cr Tss^i„ i- knew ^mit: 

Cb^j^rle^. Al<f " - '. rr .md John bid reen 

"J "rre- Su^mczshes. We knew '^mz 

i^'r: :i:r. i.- iz l^a^ frcr mere :' ~ ' 1 

r :. :—^ ::_^r. Myies.. J^sbs. Lcin ind 

.~ : ±:e seecnd of :±:e mime^ . X'^w 

XL' ' -75T:i<m is» "W^s Lcn ihe frsi:. secccd. 

Su.:n!±jsdes -^nd ~ciie:s tistzuZy rJiice b^ liS 

5rnir_ " - ■ - " " / ' "^s 2.er ^" ^ -~ — s 



142 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

to the 22d May, 1627. We may allow a 
period of three years and one half, but, 
certainly, not four years, and in that period 
three children were bom to the Captain. 
If in the next four years three children 
should have been bom to the Captain, and 
Lora were one of them, then she would 
have been old enough to do the work ex- 
hibited in Plymouth, and to meet the demands 
of tradition as to her age. We do not have 
to strain dates. But we shall consider the 
question of the date of Lora's birth in every- 
way possible, consistent with the data we 
have. 

The Captain and his second wife could 
not have been married before the end of 
July, or the beginning of August, 1623. 
Three children are recorded on the 22nd 
May, 1627. The period between these dates 
is practically forty-six months. This would 
allow an interval of fifteen months between 
the marriage and the birth of the first child, 
Charles, and fifteen months between his 
birth and Alexander's, and fifteen between 
Alexander's and John's. Of course, it is not 
Hkely that the Captain was married at once 
on Barbara's arrival, but we are supposing 
the most extreme possibility in the circtmi- 
stances; the probability is not so extreme. 
Nor is it likely that the intervening time 
between the births was just fifteen months, 
or thereabouts, in all the cases. But ac- 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 143 

cording to this supposition, the youngest of 
the three children mentioned on the 22nd 
May, 1627, would have been bom about the 
beginning of May, 1627. 

Now, if we allow the same interval of 
fifteen months between the births of the 
other children, and between John's and the 
first of all bom after his birth, we can easily 
see that the four children we know about 
that is Myles, Josias, Lora and Charles 
(the second of the name) would all have 
been bom by May, 1632. If Lora, then, 
were the oldest of those bom after May, 
1627, she would ( — allowing the longest 
possible average interval in the case of the 
three oldest children — ) have been bom 
about August, 1628. If she were the second 
child of the last four children, she woiild 
have been bom about November, 1629. 
If she were the third child of these last four 
children, she would have been bom about 
Febmary, 1631. Finally if she were the 
youngest of the four she would have been 
bom about May, 1632. 

It is easy to see that Lora could have 
been the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, or the 
seventh, child of the Captain, and yet have 
years enough to grow into the young lady 
we hear of in the traditions of Duxbtiry and 
Plymouth, have shown her skill in needle- 
work, as displayed in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth, 
and yet have departed this life before 1651, 



144 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

when Governor Bradford wrote his record 
of the Pilgrims and their descendants. There 
is no valid reason for supposing that a longer 
average time intervened between the births 
of the third child and the fourth, and the 
fourth and the fifth, and so on, simply be- 
cause there is a record that three were born 
before May 22nd, 1627. 

Of course, if you delay the marriage of 
Standish and Barbara, you shorten the in- 
tervals between the births, and you leave 
my argument as to Lora's age untouched. 
Her birth at any date between May, 1627, 
and the latest date our longest average period 
between the births can yield, will still leave 
it altogether reasonable that she could have 
been a young woman at the time of her death 
before Bradford's list was compiled. 

The longer you postpone the Captain's 
second marriage, and the older you make 
John, the youngest of the three children 
living in May, 1627, then the shorter the 
intervals between the births of these first 
three children. One would then be reason- 
ably justified in shortening the periods be- 
tween the remaining births in the Captain's 
family, imless positive contradictory evidence 
as to dates can be established. 

I think that enough has been said to 
show that Lora Standish would have had 
a long enough life in which to become the 
young lady we all know her to have been, 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 145 

and yet not to be so old at her death as 
to have had her wonderful teeth frayed or 
scratched in the least. The skeleton of the 
young woman with the light-colored hair, the 
strikingly-shaped head, and the beautiful 
teeth is without question that of Lora Stan- 
dish. 

In all that we have said about the 
number of children born to the Captain and 
his wife, Barbara, before the 22nd May, 
1627, we have not lost sight of the fact that 
the Captain went to England in the latter 
part of 1625, and returned in April, 1626. 

Even if one were disposed to say that 
Bradford's list of 1651 does not afford evidence 
of Lora's death at that time, — though person- 
ally I feel sure that she was not living when 
he wrote his list of Mayflower survivors 
and their children, — still it is evident that 
she was dead before the Captain made his 
will. As she was the third child bom to 
him after 1627, it is very clear that there 
would be sufficient time for her to grow to 
girlhood, and young womanhood even, before 
the date on the will. I have a feeling that 
some day some one will find in this country, 
or in England, documentary evidence about 
the Captain's family, and the dates of their 
birth and death. 



CHAPTER XIV 

So far no record has been found of 
the birth of. any of the Captain's children. 

Alexander became a freeman in June, 
1648. He had given notice the previous 
year that he would apply for the freeman's 
rights and privileges at the general election 
court of June, 1648. But this would not 
prove that Alexander was only twenty-one 
years of age in 1648. To argue so, woidd be 
to declare that Alexander was bom in 1627, 
and we know that he was bom, must have 
been born, at least before August, 1626. 

We have not any record of when Josias 
became a freeman. We do know that he 
is entered as a freeman with Alexander in 
the list of Duxbury freemen in 1658, and 
Josias is also entered in the Bridgewater 
list of freemen for the same year. But 
this would not prove that Josias was only 
twenty-one years old in 1658; far from it 
indeed, for he must have been twenty-one 
when the Captain appointed him an ex- 
ecutor on the 7th March, 1655, and indeed 
it is more than likely that he was twenty-one, 
or more, when he was married in 1654. 
As noted elsewhere, it is altogether more 
than probable that Josias was bom before 
1630. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 147 

I have seen a record made in 1895, by one 
of the descendants of the Captain, that 
Josias was born in 1634. This is simply 
conjecture, and may be a deduction from the 
fact that he is named as an executor in the 
Captain's will. But there is not any good 
foundation for such conjecture, the strongest 
probabilities being all in favor of an earlier 
date for the birth of Josias, as we have 
stated. If Josias were born in 1634, he could 
not at the earliest date have become a free- 
man until June, 1655, and then he wotild 
have to be twenty-one years of age; he could 
not, then, have been a freeman when his 
father's will was drawn in March, 1655, 
unless, as I elsewhere observe, we take this 
to mean March of the ecclesiastical and 
legal year of 1655, which would mean the 
historical year of 1656. You can gather 
nothing about the age of Josias from the 
Captain's will, nor from any other source, 
to justify you in saying that he was born 
in 1634. 

We now come to the question of the 
age of Mary Dingley, the first wife of Josias 
Standish, the third surviving son of Captain 
Standish. Mary Dingley is said to have 
been the daughter of John Dingley, who at 
one time lived in Lynn and Sandwich, but 
later was admitted a freeman of Marshfield 
in 1644. In the sixth volume of the New 
England Genealogical Register it is said 



148 THE GR.W'ES OF MYLES STANDISH 

that she and Josias were married on the 
19th December, 1654. She was dead before 
Captain Standish made his will on the 7th 
March, 1655. According to this her mxarried 
Hfe was ver>' brief. The Marshfield records, 
according to some, place the date of her 
death on the 1st July, 1665; this, of course, 
is a mistake of a copyist. Others quote 
the Marshfield record as saying she died 
the first of July, 1655. To me there is no 
difficulty in admitting that the 7th March, 
1655, on Standish's will may mean, (if we 
consider the Captain as using the civil, 
legal, and ecclesiastical way of counting 
the years), the 7th March, 1656, as we 
count the years. Thus we get rid of a seem- 
ing contradiction. 

Marshfield was originally part of Dux- 
bur^^ Some writers say that the name of 
Mary's father was "perhaps" John, as if they 
had some doubt about it, but this is of no 
moment in our present question. It is also said 
in the record of her death that her brother 
John was buried eight days after she was 
buried. When I m.et this record, not ha\-ing 
seen the Bradford History- at that time, 
I had half a fear that this might mean her 
brother-in-law, John Standish, but the Brad- 
ford Histor}' plainly shows that he was 
dead before 1651, and so the John mentioned 
in the record of Mar\^ Standish's death and 
funeral cannot be John Standish. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 149 

We have no record of Mary Standish's 
birth. We can only arrive at a most probable 
estimate of her age at the time of her death. 
She was married to Josias Standish in 
December, 1654. In so far as the records 
go he was the fifth son of the Captain, and 
taking into account the tradition that he was 
older than Lora, then he would be the fifth 
child. This is as far as we can go as 
to his place in his own family. We know 
that he was bom some time after May, 1627, 
being the second child bom to the Captain 
after that date. If we keep in mind what 
has been said on the question of Lora's 
birth, we are not im justified in saying that 
Josias was bom about November, 1629. 
This would make him about twenty-five 
years of age when he was married. His 
wife was in all probability a little younger 
than he was, and her age thus estimated 
would make it altogether probable, if not 
absolutely certain, that the skeleton of the 
yoimg woman with the brown hair and the 
perfect but slightly overlapping teeth, found 
on Captain Standish's left hand in the ceme- 
tery was the skeleton of Mary Dingley Stan- 
dish. 



CHAPTER XV 

Perhaps it will not be amiss to say a 
few words as to the dates on some of the old 
records. 

We must keep in mind that some writers 
have transferred the dates of the Old Style, 
in vogue before England adopted the 
Gregorian Calendar, to the New Style of 
dating. This, for instance, would accoimt 
for Governor Bradford's statement that Rose 
Standish died on the 29th January, 1621, 
(O.S.), while others say she died on the 
8th February, 1621, (N.S.). We must also 
keep in mind that the historical year began 
on the 1st January, while the civil, legal, 
and ecclesiastical year began on the 25th 
March. England did not adopt the Gregorian 
Calendar until 1751. Now if Standish, as is 
likely, used the ''civil, legal, and ecclesiastical" 
method of reckoning, his '7th March, 1655,'* 
on his will, would be really for us the 7th 
March, 1656, and if he used the Old Style 
of dating, then, for us, with the New Style, 
the date of his will would be the 17th March, 
1656. To me it seems altogether likely 
that Standish, as well as Bradford and very 
many of the Pilgrims, used the "civil, legal, 
and ecclesiastical" year and the Old Style 
of counting the days of the months. As 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 151 

the date of Standish*s will is the 7th March, 
1655, it follows, if I am correct in my surmise, 
that the will really was made in 1656. This, 
of course, would permit us to hold to the 
date 1 July, 1655, for Mary Standish*s death, 
for it was only that part of the year between 
the 1st January, and the 25th March, that 
coimted as the closing months of the civil, 
legal, and ecclesiastical year, and from the 
26th March to the 31st December, the year 
would have been the same for both the 
historical year and the civil, legal, and 
ecclesiastical one. Anyone who is familiar 
with the old records will at once see what I 
mean. Thus in a Duxbury record signed by 
Alexander Standish, Town Clerk, the date 
is given "17th February, 1699-700." Again 
we have the record of the town-meeting in 
Duxbury to raise fimds to build their new 
meeting-house, and the date is given "March 
y" 20th 170 5-6." Another Duxbury town- 
meeting is dated "Feb. 25, anno 170 6-7." 
Yet another, "16th of February anno dom. 
170 7-8." Sometimes, the year for January, 
February, and March to the 25th, is written 
thus, e.g., 16 February 1708. Examples 
of this way of dating are numerous in all 
old records. 



CHAPTER XVI 

We have now thoroughly examined the 
question of the ages of Lora Standish and 
Mary Dingley Standish. The Captain's age 
is determined for us by the records which 
speak of him as "a man full of years," and 
as "growing very ancient." The Pilgrims 
were in the habit of taking the "three-score 
years and ten" of the Psalmist, as being 
old. Bradford speaks of himself as an old 
man at sixty-seven; Bradford died in his 
sixty-ninth year. The ages then of Captain 
Standish and of Lora and Mary would bear 
out the tradition that the graves opened 
are those of Standish and his children. 
Before his own death two of his sons had died 
young, and his daughter, Lora, and his 
daughter-in-law, Mary. He had asked to 
be buried with his daughter and his daughter- 
in-law. He was buried between them. It 
seems likely to me that he purposely left 
a place for his own grave between those of 
his beloved Lora and Mary. Tradition has 
always pointed out the place; the locations 
of the homes of the first three ministers 
from 1637 to 1700 were near the spot; the 
old roads all converged there; the farm 
boundaries all locate the church there from 
the beginning; the public land was there; 
the foundations of the first two churches 
are there, the first one in the south-east 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 153 

comer of the old graveyard, and the second 
one on the eastern side of the old road that 
bounds the graveyard on the east. All these 
positive proofs show that in the first public 
graveyard Standish and his children were 
buried. In fact those who would bury him 
elsewhere, would bury him beside the first 
church and nowhere else. We have found 
that he was buried beside the first church 
and nowhere else, and we have shown where 
the first church was. The notion that he 
was buried elsewhere is simply imaginary. 

Taking into account the few hundred 
people buried in that old cemetery, and 
that there would not be one chance out of 
many millions of finding such another com- 
bination of graves as the above, exactly 
corresponding to the first five deaths in the 
Standish family, it does not seem that there 
is any room for doubt. Taking all the 
evidence into account, with the traditions, 
there is absolutely no room for doubt. 

Before proceeding, it may be permitted 
us to explain somewhat further what we know 
about Captain Standish's age. An attempt 
was one time made to find the record of his 
birth in England. It is said that he was 
christened in the parish of Chorley. The 
records of this parish are complete from 
1549 to 1652, except for the years 1584-5. 
This portion of the records has been so 
mutilated that there is no trace of the dates 



154 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

and names left. Perhaps some of our modem 
inventions would help to decipher what 
was written on these disfigured records. 
It is said that the date of his commission as 
an officer in the English army would indicate 
that he was bom in 1584 or 1585. Who ever 
saw this commission? Generally a man had 
to be twenty-one years of age before he 
received a commission. Some say his com- 
mission was granted him in Queen Elizabeth's 
time. If so, and if he were twenty-one when 
he received it, he must have been at least 
seventy-four years of age at his death, for 
Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th March, 
1603. If he received his commission at some 
earlier period than March, 1603, and if he 
were 21 years old at the time, then he woiild 
be older than we have said at the time of 
his death. Perhaps some day the exact 
dates may be discovered. At all events we 
have enough information to show that he 
was an old man at the time of his death. 
But we must observe that if he were twenty- 
one when he received his commission, and 
that he received it in Queen Elizabeth's 
time, then he was not bom in 1584 or 1585, 
but earlier, and the mutilated records for 
1584 and 1585 wotild have no bearing on 
his birth. Perhaps he was not twenty-one 
when he received his commission, or his 
commission may have been given to him 
after Elizabeth's time. 



CHAPTER XVII 

We now come to the objections raised 
in this question. I would rather not mention 
the names of those who raised the objections, 
but in all fairness to the public and to 
myself I think these names must be men- 
tioned. Some of the objectors at one time 
at least had a number of readers who very 
greatly relied on the authority of the ob- 
jectors. Prominent among the objectors was 
Mrs. Jane G. Austin, the author of some 
interesting Pilgrim stories about a generation 
ago. Mrs. Austin, because of her popularity 
as a writer of these books of fiction, had a 
following all her own; what she said, they 
believed and said. I met Mrs. Austin's ob- 
jections at the time in the Boston Transcript 
and the Old Colony Memorial of Plymouth. 
I would pass by all these objections at present, 
only I know that some day some very en- 
thusiastic "antiquarian" will very likely find 
copies of those papers in which Mrs. Austin 
made her objections and deluge the com- 
munity with "documents never before dis- 
covered," and "evidence and facts never 
before brought to light," and "objections 
that never have been answered." I feel 
obliged, then, to meet all objections and 
give my answers here in permanent form. 



156 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

It is a pleasure to say that a well-known 
Boston woman, who is equally well, or, per- 
haps better, known in Duxbury, told me that 
Mrs. Austin in her latter days considered the 
evidence I had published in a pamphlet in 
1892, and said to the close companion of 
her last days, that she was sorry she had 
ever raised any objection, and that she then 
felt that I was correct in all my conclusions. 
This was a great satisfaction to me at the 
time and always has been since. 

Another objector was Mr. Stephen M. 
Allen. Mr. Allen's objections have already 
been answered where we deal with the so- 
called "Chandler-farm theory." It will be 
sufficient then to quote the following from a 
letter of Mr. Allen to the Boston Herald. 
The letter is dated from South Duxbury, 
May 24, 1891. The portion I wish to quote 
is this: "If three graves answering the 
description of the Captain's will were found 
in the old grounds of the First Church, 
near the shore, it would be almost conclusive 
evidence that the last resting-place of the 
valiant soldier was there." 

One objection, raised by a descendant of 
Standish, was that it cannot be shown that 
the graveyard where Standish was buried 
was in use before 1697, or thereabouts. 
The proof of this is that the oldest grave- 
stone found is dated for that year. Even 
if we granted that there was no gravestone 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 157 

of earlier date than 1697, this would simply 
prove that Jonathan Alden, whose grave 
it marked, died in 1697; it would not prove 
that the stone was placed there in 1697; 
it would be no proof at all of the exact age 
of the graveyard. The oldest tombstone 
in Marshfield, in fact in the Colony, is marked 
1651, but this will not prove that the grave- 
yard was not in use before that time. The 
oldest stone in Plymouth burying ground is 
dated 1681, but no one thinks of proving 
from this that the graveyard was not in use 
long before 1681. There is the very strongest 
and most positive evidence that the grave- 
yard where Standish lies buried is the first 
graveyard of the town, and remained in use 
until about 1783, when the site of the church 
was changed to the site of the present Unita- 
rian church, or near that site ; then the present 
graveyard was first used, the graveyard 
following the church. It must not be for- 
gotten that the first settlers were too busy 
at work on the new country, and in defend- 
ing their lives from all dangers, to be able 
to spend much time and money on grave- 
yards and gravestones. Only the richer 
people were able to have tombstones, and 
these were mostly imported. 

Another objection made by the same 
person is that the stones marked the grave 
of Lora and not of Myles. The two graves are 
along side of each other. It is most likely 



158 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

that Myles marked his only daughter's grave ; 
she was likely his favorite child. Afterwards 
when he was buried beside her, it would have 
been easy for people to transfer the con- 
nection between these remarkable stones and 
Lora's grave to the grave of her famous 
father. Before the Captain's death people 
wotild have said that Lora's grave was 
marked by the stones; after her father's 
death they would have said that the Captain's 
grave was just beside these stones, or his 
burial place was marked by them. The 
two graves are very close together. The 
stones are heavy, and could not have been 
easily displaced. The stones, when found, 
exactly marked the grave of Lora Standish, 
the Captain's daughter. 

Another objection by the same objector 
is that the length of the man's skeleton was 
so great as to prove that it could not be Myles 
Standish. A French traveler, this objection 
states, is the only eye witness who has left us 
an account of the Captain's size, and he says 
the Captain was a small man; therefore it 
is concluded, the Captain's skeleton could 
not measure five feet seven inches in the 
grave. In the first place, the Frenchman 
is not the only one who has left us an 
account of the Captain's size; in the second 
place, even if the Captain was small, De 
Rassiere does not say he was a dwarf. De 
Rassiere, or De Rasieres, or De Razier, was the 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 159 

representative of the Dutch Plantation at 
Hudson River who came to Plymouth in 
October, 1627, with letters from the Dutch 
offering terms of friendship to the Pilgrims. 
The letters were signed by this Isaac De Razier , 
as Secretary. Thirdly, a man five feet seven 
inches wotdd be a small man; but what is 
more to the point is, that when a human 
body disintegrates in the grave, the bones 
fall apart and are crushed apart by the 
decayed coffin lid and the crushing earth, 
so that the skeleton in the grave is generally 
longer than the living man would be. A 
disarticulated skeleton measuring five feet 
seven inches would be a good deal longer 
than the Captain in life. 

Young in his ''Chronicles of the Pilgrims,*' 
in a footnote on page 126, says: "The Plym- 
outh soldier was a man of small stature, but 
of such an active and daring spirit that he 
spread terror through all the Indian tribes 
from Massachusetts Bay to Martha's Vine- 
yard, and from Cape Cod Harbor to Narra- 
ganset." 

Dr. James Thacher in his History of 
Plymouth, page 113, writes: "Captain Stan- 
dish, it is said, was of small stature, but 
of a fiery temper, and perhaps no man ever 
possessed a more daring and intrepid spirit." 

I am happy to say that the person offer- 
ing these last three objections withdrew them 
when he had received some enlightenment. 



160 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

It has been cause for wonder with some 
that no jewelry was found in any of the 
graves. It is very unlikely that Captain 
Standish, a soldier of fortune before he 
came here, would have any great quantity 
of jewelry. Even if he had, the simple 
and religious notions of the people would 
have been opposed to burying jewelry with 
the dead. It was the custom of the Pilgrims 
to encourage simplicity of life and dress at 
all times, and their dead were buried reverently 
but with simplicity. Absence of jewelry is 
what we should expect. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Mrs. Jane G. Austin is the one who 
makes the greatest number of objections 
to our conclusions and to our proofs. It 
is necessary to consider her objections one 
by one, that all sides of this question may 
be seen, and all the proofs and objections 
fully considered. 

Her objections will be found in her 
letters to the Boston Transcript of June 2, 
1891, and July 3, 1891, and in the Old Colony 
Memorial of Plymouth of June 13, 1891. 

1. She says the five graves found are 
not of one family. 

Ans. This is assumed without a per- 
sonal examination of the graves, the skeletons, 
and of the documentary and other proof on 
hand. Every candid observer admits that 
the graves are of one family. 

2. "As for the five graves lying in a 
row it proves positively nothing at all." 

Ans. As for the five graves, they prove 
that an old man was buried between two 
young women, and that a boy and a child 
were buried in the same row. They prove 
that the skull of the man is very like the 
skull of the young woman on his right hand 
side, and that these skulls are very like the 
skull of one of the direct descendants of 



162 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Standish, recently living in Diixbury; all 
these heads have a peculiar shape or con- 
formation. The graves were found with 
skeletons corresponding to the first five deaths 
in the Captain's family, and with the skeletons 
bearing out the historical testimony as to 
age and sex, and also as to the positions of 
the graves of the old man and the two young 
women. These graves were found in what 
tradition and history point out as the first 
graveyard, and the two famous triangular 
pyramids of stone were marking the place. 

3. The two boys, Charles and John, 
died of plague in Plymouth in 1632-33. 
Therefore they are buried in Plymouth. 

Ans. This is gratuitous assumption. No- 
body can prove that the boys died in Plymouth, 
or died of the plague. We are justified in 
maintaining that the graves of the boy 
and of the child are those of Charles and 
John Standish, as long as we can prove that 
their father and his daughter and daughter- 
in-law are buried in the same place. The 
evidence will prove that the Standish family 
was living in Duxbury during the plague and 
not in Plymouth. The plague was in the 
hot season, but Standish then lived in Dux- 
bury. We have already quoted that docu- 
raent signed by him and others in April, 
1632, promising to return to Plymouth in 
the winter season. They must have been 
in Duxbury in the summer of 1632, and 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 163 

during each summer afterwards. In fact 
there is nothing to prove that the men 
who signed that document did return to 
Plymouth in the winter; the chiu-ches 
divided in 1632, and there are other proofs 
that the document was never enforced. 

Even if Standish were in Plymouth 
when the plague broke out, would it not be 
most reasonable to suppose that he would 
at once remove his family to Duxbury? 
Were we to grant that the Standish boys 
died in Plymouth, which we do not admit, 
would not their father bring their bodies to 
be buried in Duxbury, where he intended to 
make his home for the remainder of his 
life? Mrs. Austin suggests that Standish 
would not have removed his children to 
Duxbury when they were sick of the plague. 
She writes: "But if Standish's two sons 
died of the sickness in 1633, it was highly 
improbable that their father carried them 
away from the vicinity of Dr. Fuller then 
in Plymouth and who was the only physician 
of the colony." Here Mrs. Austin assumes 
that the boys died in 1633, of the plague, 
in Plymouth, and were buried there. Then 
she assimies that it had been suggested, 
that Standish removed the plague-stricken 
boys during their illness from the care of 
Dr. Fuller! No one ever thought of such 
a thing. Even if his children did live in 
Duxbury, the settlers in Duxbury would 



164 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

all have to call upon Dr. Fuller in their 
illness until they secured a physician nearer 
home. Everyone knows that Dr. Fuller did 
go to Marshfield, and to greater distances 
than Duxbury, to attend sick people. He 
even went as far as Salem. Mrs. Austin, in 
her novels, which are supposed to be more 
or less historical, sends doctors on longer 
journeys than that from Plymouth to Dtix- 
bury; by water that journey would be twice 
as short as by land. However, it must be 
borne in mind that the graves of the boy 
and child are not of importance in locating 
the grave of the Captain from the evidence of 
his own will. 

''The church in Duxbury was formed 
in 1632." So says Young in his Chronicles 
of the Pilgrims. 

The Manuscript Records of Plymouth 
Church say on page 36: "Those that lived 
on their lots on the other side of the bay 
(called Duxburrow,) could no longer bring 
their wives and children to the public wor- 
ship and church meetings here (at Plymouth), 
but with such burthen, as growing to some 
competent number, they sued to be dis- 
missed and become a body of themselves; 
and so they were dismissed about this time, 
(though very unwillingly,) and some time 
after being united into one entire body, they 
procured Reverend Mr. Ralph Partrich to 
be their pastor." 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 165 

This Ralph Partridge is said to have 
been "a gracious man of great abilities." 
He had been a clergyman of the Church of 
England. It would seem that no church 
or meeting-house was built in Duxbury until 
1637-1638, about the time the people * 'united 
into one entire body" and called Rev. Ralph 
Partridge to be their pastor, at least as early 
as June, 1637. 

The old records also tell us that in 1632, 
somewhat later than the date of the dociiment 
signed on ''Aprell 2 " by Standish and others, 
^'a number of the brethren inhabiting on 
the other side of the bay, at a place since 
called Duxborough, growing weary of at- 
tending the worship of God from such dis- 
tance asked and were granted a dismission." 
From this time then the worship of God 
was carried on in Duxbury, and this would 
indicate that a settled population was living 
there, even before that time. Indeed the 
docimient of ''Aprell 1^ " would show that the 
Plymouth brethren were shocked to some 
extent, because the Duxbury brethren, with- 
out doubt, had been remiss in attending the 
public worship in Plymouth in the winter 
seasons. It is also well to keep in mind that 
the Aldens claim that the first John Alden 
house was built in Duxbury in 1627, and they 
have erected a tablet bearing that date. 
These dates show that the Duxbury settle- 
^ ment was a permanent one before 1632 when 



166 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

the plague broke out in Plymouth and that 
Standish and his family belonged on the 
Duxbury side. 

This last document would seem to in- 
dicate that the name of Duxbury had already 
been adopted by the people of that town. 
The settlement of Dtixbury was tindoubtedly 
made some years before 1632. 

Young tells us that Standish removed 
to Dtixbiu-y in 1630. 

It must not be lost sight of that as the 
cattle increased in numbers, and the population 
increased, it would be more and more difficult 
for the settlers in Duxbiuy to go to Plymouth 
Sabbath after Sabbath. Probably, too, there 
were not many conveyances, or beasts of 
biu-den, to take them there. A journey to 
Plymouth and back, and attendance on the 
rather lengthy services would consume most 
of the day. 

Duxbury became a separate town by 
an order of the General Court on the 7th 
June, 1637. 

4. Speaking of the Captain's will, Mrs. 
Austin says: "If he had also two sons in 
the same btirial spot would not he have 
spoken of them as well as of his daughter- 
in-law? And if the two young women had 
been buried in such fashion as to leave a 
space for the father between would not 
he have alluded to such an arrangement?" 

Ans. The plain answer to both these 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 167 

questions is No. He woiild not have been 
so likely to mention the boys who died in 
youth, as his daughter-in-law, who died 
only a short time before himself. In his 
will he plainly refers to the fact that he was 
to be buried near his daughter and daughter- 
in-law, in their well-known burial place. 
He mentioned the place in which he wished 
to be buried, and in describing that place it 
was necessary to refer to his daughter and 
his daughter-in-law but not to the boys. He 
very evidently took it for granted that his 
family would know the spot in which he 
desired to be buried. 

5. ''These five graves have no dated 
stones, no parish record, no valid tradition." 

Ans. In the Plymouth graveyard the 
oldest dated stone is for 1681; this will 
not prove that certain graves of earlier 
date are not known. We have never heard 
of graves having a ''parish record." There 
is no "parish record" of any grave in the 
country. 

That these graves have "no valid tra- 
dition" is not correct; the strongest possi- 
ble traditions are attached to these graves 
in that graveyard. To asstmie the con- 
trary is a simple begging of the question. 
In her second letter to the Transcript Mrs. 
Austin changes her language and says: "My 
saying that their graves had 'no dated stones* 
and the deaths no 'parish record,' did not 



168 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

mean as Mr. H. seems to believe, that in 
this they differed from other ascertained 
graves of the same day." Here she changes 
her language and attributes to me a belief 
I never held as to her meaning. No grave 
in the Colony had, or has, a parish record, in 
the sense of the term "parish record." 

6. She says: "I should suppose that 
any student of our earliest burying-grounds 
would have learned that burial lots are a 
modem invention. In the early days the 
groimd belonged to the town, that is to say 
to the church, for the interests were identical, 
and persons were buried where the survivors 
pleased. Burying hill in Plymouth is the 
oldest and best instance of an ancient New 
England cemetery, and there one frequently 
finds the headstone of an alien intruded upon 
a family group, and 'those who know' as- 
sure us that the ground is full of nameless 
bones above which other bodies have been 
laid. So the 'burial lot' must be set aside 
as an anachronism." This is from the letter 
to the Transcript of Jime 2, 1891. In her 
letter to the same paper of July 3, 1891, she 
says: "As for my statement that the phrase 
burial lots is an anachronism, as connected 
with the earliest burying-grounds of our 
country, I reassert it. A burial place means 
a place allotted and divided off for the use 
of a purchaser or donee. This usage did not 
obtain in our early burying grounds and 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 169 

although families were naturally laid as near 
together as convenient, there were no rights 
of possession given to any individual or family. 

Ans. In all this there is nothing to the 
purpose, because if we granted that fami- 
lies had no special places for burial in the 
graveyards, and if they were buried one 
here and one there, still in the case of Captain 
Standish we know that he was buried near 
his daughter and daughter-in-law. Mrs. 
Austin puts a private and strained meaning 
upon family ''burial lot" which no one will 
admit. The * 'burial lot'* does not in law, 
or in common language, mean exclusively 
a lot owned by purchase or by gift. There 
were places where families were buried by 
themselves in all the old graveyards. Plym- 
outh Burying Hill is itself a proof of this. Nor 
was the sanctity of family burial place, 
burial lot, or burial plot, or whatever you may 
call it, invaded except in very exceptional 
cases. The graveyard in Marshfield is proof 
of this; also the Granary graveyard in 
Boston, and all the old graveyards in the 
Colony. The graveyards of England, at 
the time of which we speak, show that 
family burial places were respected. Ply- 
mouth Burying Hill might be said to be 
rather a tmique burying groimd than "the 
best instance of an ancient New England 
cemetery." 

The people of New England respected, 



170 THE GRAVES OF MYLEvS STANDISH 

as English Christians have always done, 
the sacredness of the family btirial place. 
As a rule families do not intrude on fami- 
lies. Here the graveyards were owned by 
the town, and the people had permission 
to bury their dead in certain parts of the 
graveyard. Fathers desired to be buried 
with their families, and as the fathers were 
the voters who controlled all these matters, 
we may be sure they agreed to respect, as 
their forefathers had always done, the sacred- 
ness of the family burial lots. 

7. Mrs. Austin says: "The three-comer- 
stone theory took its rise in the simimer 
of 1887." 

Ans. This is not so. Mrs. Austin then 
first heard of it; that is all. Mrs. Austin 
undoubtedly wrote what she believed to 
be correct when she gave her version of the 
Prior tradition, but her version so contradicts 
itself, is so impossible in itself, and so con- 
tradicts facts, that there is little hesitation 
in rejecting it. For instance, she says the 
grandfather of the last Benjamin Prior was 
the boy of ten years of age who witnessed 
the Captain's funeral. The last Benjamin 
was bom in 1775, and the boy who witnessed 
the funeral was bom 1646. These dates 
would make it highly improbable that it 
was the grandfather of the last Benjamin 
Prior who, as a boy of ten years, witnessed the 
fimeral of Captain Standish. The Prior his- 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 171 

tory contradicts it too; it was the great- 
grandfather who saw the Standish funeral. 
This we have already discussed. 



I 



CHAPTER XIX 

8. The lady who informed Mrs. Austin of 
Dr. Wadsworth's testimony, given in the pres- 
ence of Mrs. Ruth Hall, about the two re- 
markable stones, is said to have stated that 
she (Mrs. Austin's informant) did not know 
where Dr. Wadsworth took his guests, 
whether to Harden Hill or to the old burying 
groimd at Hall's Corner. 

Ans. The lady mentioned is not a wit- 
ness in the case. That she knew nothing of 
the precise place to which Dr. Wadsworth 
took his guests is of no value as evi- 
dence. The facts remain about the two re- 
markable pyramidal stones, and that Mrs. 
Ruth Hall handed down her testimony about 
them, and that no such stones have been 
found elsewhere than in the old cemetery, and 
that all history, and tradition, and evidence 
from the graves support what we have said. 

9. Mrs. Austin confuses the history of 
the two stones. She gives four different ac- 
cotints of them. In her letter to the Tran- 
script of June 2nd, she says: "Having 
heard the story I at once visited the grave, 
and at the first glance thought such very 
ordinary looking pieces of stone could not 
be those described as such unmistakable 
landmarks. Laying my hand upon one I 
found it very loose, and easily lifted it out 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 173 

of the earth, which it penetrated some five 
or six inches." In her second letter to the 
Transcript of July 3d, she says: "The origin 
of this theory was that when the three- 
cornered stones (one of which, by the way, 
is four-sided)." In her letter to the Old Col- 
ony Memorial she calls them "two little 
triangular stones," marking the grave, as 
she thinks, of "Alexander Standish," who 
died in 1703, or Josias Standish. In her 
"Standish of Standish" page 419, she says 
that the grave of Captain Standish lay across 
the valley from the Captain's Hill, and is 
"marked head and foot with a great three- 
cornered stone." 

Thus we see she calls them "two ordi- 
nary looking pieces of stone," "two little 
triangular stones," "two great three-cor- 
nered stones," and finally says that one of 
them is a "four-sided stone." Then she 
puts them, (1) at Captain Standish's grave, 
(2) at Alexander's grave, and (3) at the 
grave of Josias Standish. Alexander died 
in 1702, and at one time she makes the 
Prior boy see his funeral, and another time 
the Captain's in 1656, at another time that 
of Josias who moved to Connecticut and 
was buried there. Again she makes the 
boy, the same boy, ten years of age in 
1656, and the same age in 1702, and the same 
age at the funeral of Josias, who was not 
buried in Duxbury at all. 



174 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Speaking of the stones she says she moved 
the eastern one, "easily lifting'* it out of 
the ground which it penetrated but five or 
six inches. Mr. Melzar Brewster, who was 
employed by the Rural Society to put the 
old graveyard in order, distinctly told me 
that the stones were in the same position 
from the time he discovered them, before 
1887, until May, 1891. It was between these 
two dates that Mrs. Austin inspected the 
stones and "easily lifted" one of them. 

The weather marks on the stones, and 
the moss lines, etc., plainly showed how 
deep the stones were in the earth. The 
stone at the eastern end, or foot of the grave, 
measures two feet seven in direct altitude, 
and weighs seventy-nine pounds. Seventeen 
inches of its altitude were in the earth, and 
from the shape of the stone it would be 
impossible for the strongest man in Dux- 
bury to easily lift the stone even with his 
two hands. The stone was in that position, 
Mr. Brewster says, before 1887, when Mrs. 
Austin first saw it. The stones were not 
removed at any time by those digging there. 
The diggers of 1889 have told me so, and in 
1891 they were not removed when we were 
opening the graves. The lateral altitudes 
of the faces of the stone at the foot of the 
grave and above the ground, were 17, 15, 
and 13}/2 inches. The bases of the trian- 
gular faces were 9, 9, and 73^ inches. These 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 175 

measurements were made before the stone 
was removed from the position it occupied 
when Mrs. Austin saw it. Later it was re- 
moved to be weighed, more fully measured, 
and photographed. 

The other stone at the head of the grave 
weighs one himdred and nine pounds, and 
is thirty inches in direct altitude. It was 
buried in the ground to a depth of nearly 
eighteen inches. The lateral altitudes of the 
triangular faces above the ground, were 
12J^, 13, and 11)^ inches; the bases of the 
same faces measured 8, 63^ and 11 inches. 
These measurements were taken, some of 
them, before the stone was removed, and 
some after it had been taken up to be photo- 
graphed and weighed. 

All those who have seen the stones admit 
that for all purposes of description in a 
general letter on the evidence the stones 
would be rightly called "triangular pyra- 
mids." Mrs. Austin herself having seen the 
stones so described them in her "Standish 
of Standish," and in her letters to the Old 
Colony Memorial of Plymouth, and to the 
Transcript. That she afterwards called one 
of them a ''four-sided one" may be accounted 
for by the fact that one of the edges of this 
seventy-nine pound stone, which she easily 
lifted, was broken off, or sliced off. This 
edge is thicker than the other edges, and you 
can see at once that it was sliced off for about 



176 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

eight or ten inches of its length, as the edge 
still remains on the lower part of the stone. 
What Mrs. Austin at one time calls a fotirth 
side would be more aptly described as a 
thick edge. Those who are interested can 
see the stones for themselves. 

10. Mrs. Austin admits that the argu- 
ments drawn from the public highways of 
the early town to locate the church are 
good from 1650. Standish was buried in 
1656. Therefore, even she should admit 
the possibility that he was buried at HalFs 
Comer graveyard. If the arguments from 
the roads, etc., are good from 1650, they 
ought to be good from 1637 when the roads 
were surveyed, especially as they were the 
only roads for a great many years, in fact 
until after 1700. 

11. She says of the town or parish 
records that "all such records previous to 
1665 were destroyed by fire." 

The statement made by Mrs. Austin and 
others, that the town records were destroyed 
by fire in 1665, and therefore we have no 
official record of events before that time, is 
altogether erroneous. The only destruction 
of any records of Duxbury of which we 
positively know took place in 1682-3. There 
is a record for the 26th March, 1682-3, 
mentioning that the town clerk's house had 
been burnt and ordering the re-entry on the 
records of land of Henry Sampson, which 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 177 

record had been destroyed. This record will 
be foiind in Book A, p. 232. This is the only 
record in existence of the destruction of any of 
the records of Dnxbnry, for a period covering 
at least 100 years from the founding of the 
town. The vague tradition to which Mrs. 
Austin and others appeal about a fire in 1665 
is without foundation. It is fully evident from 
the order to re-enter the record of Henry Samp- 
son's land that this was about the only serious 
record lost. If others had been lost there 
would have been an order for their re-entry 
on the town's records. Besides, this record 
of the fire is given at page 232 in Book A 
of the records, and it is plain, as I have said, 
that if all the records had been destroyed, 
all entries prior to 1682 would have been lost. 
But this is not so. 

Besides, many of the records of the town 
are to be found in the Old Colony Records, 
and in the records of other towns at one 
time part of Duxbury. 

12. She says that the most important 
of the first settlers, with the exception of John 
Alden, settled in the Nook beside Captain 
Standish, and therefore the first church was 
built, not at Hall's Comer, but at Harden 
Hill for the sake of convenience. 

Ans. Anyone who examines the ground 
will at once see that a church on Harden 
Hill would be far more inaccessible and 
inconvenient for Standish and all his sup- 



178 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

posed neighbors than one at Hall's Comer. 
Again, the most important of the first settlers 
did not all, Alden excepted, live in the Nook 
and near the Captain. The most important 
of the settlers, after Standish and Brewster, 
were Stephen Tracy, Jonathan Brewster, 
Thomas Prince, Christopher Wadsworth, 
William Basset, Francis Sprague, the How- 
lands, Southworths, Browns, Btimpuses, 
Soules, Delanos, Pollards, Hilliers and others. 
These men lived on towards Kingston, 
along the eastern shore towards Powder 
Point, and around the mill at Mill Brook, 
and towards Duck Hill in Marshfield. The 
notion, then, that the church was near 
Standish for the accommodation of himself 
and the chief settlers of the town is without 
foundation in fact. Every such argument 
would point to the place between Hall's 
and Bayley's Comers. 

13. Elder Brewster "was their minister" 
for some years, "though never ordained." 

Ans. Elder Brewster was never the 
minister of the church in Duxbury, and 
never was called such by any historian. 
He was not even minister in Plymouth 
during the years when they had no minister. 
The most ever said of him in this matter 
is that he conducted service and preached 
when they had no settled minister. There 
is no proof that he was ever connected with 
the Duxbury church. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 179 

Elder Brewster was the ruling Elder of 
the Plymouth church to the day of his death. 
Bradford says he was eighty years of age 
at his death; others say he was eighty-four. 

The first minister of Duxbury, mentioned 
as such by all historians, including Mr. 
Justin Winsor, was the Rev. Ralph Partridge, 
who came to Duxbury in 1637, and, according 
to Mather's Magnalia, died in 1658. 

The second minister was Rev. John 
Holmes from 1658 to 1675. 

The third was Rev. Ichabod Wiswall 
from 1676 to 1700. Mr. Wiswall's tomb- 
stone still stands in the little cemetery at 
Hall's Corner, not far from Standish's grave. 

The fourth was Rev. John Robinson 
who succeeded Mr. Wiswall. 

14. "A little house, probably no more 
than a cabin, was built for purposes of 
worship, and surely this would be in the 
vicinity of the Captain's and Elder's homes." 

"The first church in Plymouth was 
built in 1648 and was replaced by another 
in 1683, a period of thirty-five years, and 
probably the first church edifice in the 
little settlement gathered about Captain's 
Hill was even shorter lived." 

" 'Constant tradition' places this church 
on Harden Hill just north of the Brewster 
farm, and I am inclined to consider this 
tradition as very likely to be an historical fact. 

Ans. Let us examine this statement, 



180 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

paragraph by paragraph. As to the first 
paragraph. There are three guesses in it, 
but not a bit of evidence, or real tradition 
or history. The first guess is that a Httle 
house was built for worship. The second 
guess, that it was probably no more than a 
cabin. And the third guess that it "surely 
would be in the vicinity of the Captain's 
and Elder's homes." Very good, let us grant 
the guesses and ask — When was this little 
house built? Where precisely was it built? 
Mrs. Austin thinks it was certainly in the 
vicinity of Captain Standish's and Elder 
Brewster's homes. But the Hall's Comer 
site was far nearer by road than Harden 
Hill, for you came up to the gates of "the 
Noock" and immediately you were on the 
road from "Morton's Hole to Ducksburrow 
towne," as the record of 1637 says; this 
road led not to Harden Hill, but to Duck 
Hill in Marshfield and to Green Harbor. 
Why the Elder and the Captain should be 
specially favored in the location of the 
church I do not see. It is true the 
church was fairly near to them, but it was 
far nearer to several of the other settlers. 
I feel certain that the site of the church 
was selected, not with a view to pleasing 
any one person, or two, but with an eye single 
to the welfare of the whole community and to a 
possible union with Plymouth in the future. 
Besides, there was no road to Harden Hill. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 181 

The second paragraph, referring to the 
meeting-house built in Plymouth in 1648, 
is altogether beside the question. Duxbury 
was not an active imitator of Plymouth, 
reproducing Plymouth things in smaller ways 
and for shorter periods. The records show 
that the first church in Duxbury stood from 
1638 to 1706-7, a period of sixty-nine years, 
and Justin Winsor and all other authorities 
on Duxbury History state that the first 
church stood for "sixty" or "seventy" years, 
and these writers, including Mr. Winsor, 
evidently based their statements on tradition, 
not on docimients. I base my argimient 
on docimients; if it were a question of mere 
tradition, I could not waste time upon it. 

Mrs. Austin's statement that the first 
church in Plymouth was built in 1648, is 
not supported by the most emiment au- 
thorities on Plymouth history. Mr. William 
T. Davis of Plymouth, in his "Ancient 
Landmarks of Plymouth," says that the 
little fortress erected on Burial Hill (at that 
time Fort Hill) in 1622, served as a church or 
meeting-house until 1637, when the Plymouth 
people built their first meeting-house on a site 
now covered by the tower of the Odd Fellows' 
Hall and the store of Hatch and Shaw. 

It will be seen, then, the Duxbury 
Church, mentioned in the records in 1638, 
was built at about the same period as the 
Plymouth church of 1637. 



182 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Mrs. Austin's third conjecture, placing 
the first meeting-house on Harden Hill, fast 
hardens into almost a fact for her; this 
theory we have already refuted. 

Mrs. Austin, when reminded that in her 
'*Standish of Standish" she buried Myles 
in the old graveyard near Hall's Comer, 
said she buried him there as a "picturesque 
possibility." In all this Mrs. Austin begs 
all her positions and proves nothing. No 
comment is necessary other than her own 
words in the Transcript of June 2, 1891: 
*'One great stumbling block in the path of 
historical research is the proneness of the 
himian mind to believe what it wants to 
believe, and to accept as proven that which 
is only tradition or fancy." 

15. The graves of the early settlers 
were likely to be hidden "especially after 
the beginning of the Pequot war." 

Ans. Even if the graves were hidden, 
the men who buried Standish would know 
where they had buried him, and his daughter's 
grave was known, as we see from the Captain's 
will. What connection was there between 
Standish's grave and the Pequot war which 
was ended nineteen years before the Captain 
died? 

16. She says the conditions for the 
franchise in Duxbury were never enforced 
in the case of Standish. 

Ans. She says this in speaking of Stan- 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 183 

dish's religion, a matter of irrelevance from 
her standpoint. I felt obliged to speak of 
his religion, because some said that he was 
a Roman Catholic, and therefore not buried 
with the Pilgrims. In the assumption she 
makes she woiild have Standish, one of the 
founders of the town, demanding from others 
conditions for the freedom of the town, which 
he would not and did not demand from him- 
self. Standish on this point was ruled by 
the townsmen, and they were not in the 
habit of making laws simply to set them aside. 

17. Mrs. Austin, speaking of the old 
burying-ground at Hall's Comer, calls it 
the ''Second Burying Ground, '* using capi- 
tal letters, so as to insinuate to outsiders 
that it was known by that name. Again 
she says: "Now if in 1675 the Second Bury- 
ing Ground was a new one as the Duxbury 
argument claims . . .*' 

Ans. As I am the one responsible for 
the "Duxbtiry Argtmient," I most em- 
phatically say that our argument always 
contended, and contends, that the old ceme- 
tery near Hall's Comer, called by Mrs. Austin 
the "Second Burying Ground" was the first 
burying groimd, and is known in Duxbury 
and the records of Duxbury as the old ceme- 
tery, not as the "Second Burying Ground." 

18. Mrs. Austin cites some authorities 
in her letters to sustain her views. Those 
of them who can must answer for them- 



184 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

selves. As to me no man's authority, as 
merely his, is of any use in matters of history. 

The only things of weight in history are 
evidence and applied common sense. The 
location of the grave of Myles Standish is 
a matter of historic research. We have 
tried to follow out the lines of historic evidence. 
The public will be judge. 

It seems unnecessary to say more, but 
Mrs. Austin in her "Betty Alden" has thought 
it right to say about the burial place of Stan- 
dish : — 

'Tn the absence of all proof in any such 
matter, tradition becomes important, and 
so far as I have been able to determine, the 
tradition that some of the earliest settlers 
were buried in the vicinity of a temporary 
meeting-house upon Harden Hill in Dux- 
bury is more reliable than the tradition 
that Standish was laid in an old burying- 
ground at Hall's Comer, which, probably, 
was not set aside as a burial place in 1656, 
the date of his death. That of Elder Brew- 
ster, concerning whose burial we have many 
particulars, is altogether unknown, except 
that it seems to have been upon Burying 
Hill. Perhaps that of Standish is there 
also, for when he says, Tf I die in Duxbury 
I should like', etc., he may mean that if he 
dies in Dtixbury he would fain be carried 
to Plymouth there to lie beside his daughters 
and his two little sons as well." 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 185 

In this attempt at an historical novel 
Mrs. Austin assumes all her history, and 
even contradicts herself, and misquotes his- 
torical docimients. She assimies a meet- 
ing house on Harden Hill; she assimies 
that Standish was buried there; she as- 
simies as likely that Brewster was buried 
in Plymouth; she says perhaps Standish is 
buried in Plymouth; she assumes that his 
daughters are buried in Plymouth, and his 
two young sons. All these things she as- 
sumes as probable, or at least as possible. 
In her "Standish of Standish'* she buries 
the Captain in Hall's Corner graveyard. 
She misquotes the Captain's will which reads: 
"And if I die att Duxborrow my body to be 
layed as neare as conveniently may bee to 
my two dear daughters, Lora Standish my 
daughter and Mary Standish my daughter- 
in-law." This plainly tells whether his 
daughters were buried in Plymouth or not. 
The record of Nathaniel Morton (40 years 
secretary of the Colony), cited in one of the 
earlier chapters, states that Standish died 
in Duxburrow and was honorably buried in 
that town. Let the public judge of the value 
of Mrs. Austin's history. 

Mrs. Austin knew nothing whatever 
about the second boy until I brought the 
matter to light ; neither did anyone else. 

It hardly seems out of place to say that 
John Alden is undoubtedly buried in the 



186 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

same graveyard where Myles Standish lies. 
John Alden in his old age lived and died in 
the home of his son Jonathan. This son 
died in 1697, and his tombstone is the most 
perfect, as well as the oldest dated one of 
all the tombstones in the old cemetery. 
Jonathan was without doubt buried beside 
his wife Abigail, who died August 17, 1725, 
and whose tombstone still stands in the old 
burying ground. The stone that marked 
Jonathan's grave was kept in one of the pri- 
vate houses in Duxbury; I think it has been 
returned to the cemetery. Now it seems 
almost certain that Jonathan Alden was 
buried near his father, who died according 
to some in September, 1686, according to 
others in September, 1687, and at the most 
only ten or eleven years before Jonathan 
died. John Alden, his wife Priscilla, and 
almost all the old settlers of the town lie 
buried in the old cemetery between Hall's 
and Bayley's Corners. This seems certain. 
As to Major Alden's feeling or belief 
that John Alden was buried a little to the 
west of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
(now the Protestant Episcopal), in Duxbury, 
we make two remarks: first, John Alden is 
buried in a cemetery that is west of the 
said church, for the old cemetery where 
Standish lies is west (or west by south), and, 
secondly, the second John Alden was accused 
of witchcraft, and it is possible that he, or 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 187 

some succeeding John, was buried near where 
the Protestant Episcopal church now stands. 
This, of course, is irrelevant to our argument. 
The land around the Protestant Episcopal 
church never belonged to the Aldens, and 
never was used as a cemetery in the seven- 
teenth century. It is not likely that John 
Alden was buried on another man's land. 



CHAPTER XX 

We can account for the burial of some of 
the first settlers elsewhere than in Duxbury, 
as, for example, Mrs. Barbara Standish, 
the Captain's second wife, and Jonathan 
Brewster. It was commonly said that Mrs. 
Standish went to Connecticut with her son 
Josias, and is buried there. 

As to Elder and Mrs. Brewster, she is 
buried in Plymouth, and it is likely the 
Elder also is buried there. 

The Rev. John Robinson in a letter to 
Elder Brewster on the 20th December, 1623, 
speaks of Mrs. Brewster's very delicate health, 
and hopes that the arrival of her daughters. 
Fear and Patience, may be a relief to her; 
from the letter we know that Mrs. Brewster 
had been in ill health for some time before 
the Pilgrims left Ley den. In Bradford's 
list of Mayilower passengers Mrs. (Mary) 
Brewster is mentioned. Bradford again 
speaks of her in the list of survivors and their 
descendants in the year 1651. Bradford 
there says: "M^ Brewster lived to very 
old age; about 80. years he was when he dyed, 
having lived some 23. or 24. years here in 
y^ countrie; & though his wife dyed long 
before, yet she dyed aged." Governor Brad- 
ford says that Elder Brewster died on the 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 189 

16th April, 1644. The figure six in sixteen 
seems to have been subjected to an attempt 
to change it to ten, so that the manuscript 
would read the tenth, but the figure six was 
so changed as to make it almost appear like 
the figure eight, and so we find that Morton 
in his Memorial places Elder Brewster's 
death on the 18th (eighteenth) of April, 
and in the year 1644. Bradford in his list 
of 1651, says the Elder had been 23 or 24 
years in this country when he died. This 
evidently means that he was over twenty- 
three years, but not quite twenty-four. He 
was here twenty-three years in December, 
1643, and he would have been twenty-four 
years in December, 1644, but he died in 
April, 1644. 

But the question of the date of Brew- 
ster's death seems to be decided by the 
entries in the book known as ''The Brewster 
Book." There was a manuscript copy of 
this found in the Boston Public Library in 
1896, and investigation brought to light 
that the original was owned by Mr. Cordilla 
Walker Fitch of Morrisville, Vermont. The 
manuscript is said to have been in the posses- 
sion of the Elder himself, and if none of the 
entries are in his writing, certainly some of 
them were entered by Jonathan Brewster. 
Among the entries by Jonathan Brewster 
is this : — 

"Mary Brewster the wife of William 



190 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Brewster dyed at Plymouth in New England, 

the 17thof Aprill, 1627." 

and also this about the Elder: — 

"William Brewster dyed at Plymouth 
in New England the 10th of Aprill, 1644." 

Mrs. Brewster's name in not given in 
the list of the 22nd May, 1627, although 
the wives (if living) of other participants 
in the cattle allotment are given. Elder 
Brewster is at the head of Lot No. 5. It 
would seem, then, that she was dead before 
the allotment of cattle took place, and 
Jonathan Brewster's diary says she died 17th 
April, 1627, at Plymouth. Very likely, then, 
she was buried in Plymouth, and it is very 
probable, though not so certain, that 
Elder Brewster also was buried in Plymouth. 
The Brewster Diary, or Book, says the Elder 
also died in Plymouth. We do know 
that the Elder's home was in Duxbury for 
several years. We are not told that he 
returned to Plymouth to live there. He 
may have been visiting at the home of some of 
his relatives, or friends, when he died; or, 
indeed, he may have gone to Plymouth for 
the Sabbath Services, as the 10th April, 1644, 
was on a Sabbath or Sunday. It would 
seem likely, then, that the Elder was buried 
in Plymouth, but we have not the same 
certainty for it that we have for Standish's 
burial in Duxbury. 

Mrs. Austin would argue that because 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 191 

Brewster was buried in Plymouth, therefore 
Standish was buried there, even in the face 
of the evidence of Standish's will, and the 
evidence of Nathaniel Morton, the Secretary 
of the Colony. Of course, in 1891, 1892, 
Mrs. Austin knew nothing of the ''Brewster'* 
Diary, or Book, and neither did I. My 
argument at that time was based on the 
facts known at the time. I knew that Brew- 
ster removed from Plymouth to Duxbury, 
and there was not a bit of evidence known 

I to me, or available by me, that he had died 

in Plymouth. The Jonathan Brewster entries 
have changed all this. The fact that Love 
and Jonathan Brewster, and Captain Standish, 
and Edward Winslow, and Thomas Prince, 
and Governor Bradford, are mentioned as 

I "returning" to the Governor's house after 

the funeral would not prove anything for 
or against Plymouth, or Duxbury, as the 
burial place of the Elder. The gentle- 
men who went to the Governor's house were 
all interested in the settlement of the Brewster 
estate, and Captain Standish and Edward 
Winslow and Thomas Prince and Governor 
Bradford were the men who made the award 
in the distribution of the Elder's property 
between Jonathan and Love Brewster, (the 
only surviving sons mentioned in the Old 
Colony Records), in August, 1645. Besides, 
the Governor had a home at Kingston and he 
may have been there in April, 1644, even as 



192 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

early as the 10th of the month, to arrange 
for planting his spring crops, and the gentle- 
men named might have returned with him 
to Kingston. 

While searching in the old graveyard 
near Hall's Comer I discovered a grave 
which had been paved with ordinary stones. 
The stones around the borders of the surface 
of the grave were placed on edge, and the 
inner portion paved with large and small 
stones. The grave had sunk so that the 
stones once on the surface were several 
inches under ground, and the roots of a 
cherry tree, long since cut down, had reached 
out ten or twelve feet and internetted them- 
selves with the stones. The roots were 
large. All indications show that the grave 
is a very old one. It lies between the Standish 
graves and the foundation of the first church. 
In so far as I can learn the grave is imique 
in the old graveyards of Plymouth Colony. 

Everything being taken into account it 
is easily seen that the grave is that of one 
of the most prominent of the early settlers 
of the town, and it may possibly be that of 
Elder Brewster, or more likely of the Rev. 
Ralph Partridge, the first minister, who died 
in 1658. 



CHAPTER XXI 

It is obvious that Captain Standish's 
will has a great bearing on our subject. 

STANDISH'S WILL 

"The last will and testament of Capt. 
Myles Standish Gent, exhibited before the 
court held at Plymouth, the 4th of May 
1657, on the oath of Capt. James Cud- 
worth and ordered to bee registered as fol- 
io weth : 

*' Given under my hand this March the 
7th 1655. Witnesseth these Presents that 
I Myles Standish Senr. of Duxbiurow being 
in pfect memory yett deseased in my body, 
and knowing the fraile estate of man in his 
best estate I do make this to bee my last 
will and testament in manner and form 
following. 

"1. My will is that out of my whole 
estate my funerall charges to bee taken out 
& my body to bee biuied in decent maner 
and if I die att Duxburrow my body to be 
layed as neare as conveniently may bee 
to my two dear Daughters Lora Standish 
my Daughter and Mary Standish my daughter 
in law. 

"2. My will is that out of the remaining 
pte of my whole estate that all my just 
and lawful debts which I now owe or at the 
day of my death may owe bee paied. 



194 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

* *3 . Out of what remains according to the 
order of this Gov'^ment: my will is that 
my dear and loveing wife Barbara Standish 
shall have the third pte, 

"4. I have given to my son Josias Stan- 
dish upon his marriage one young horse 
five sheep and two heffors which I must 
upon that contract of marriage make forty 
potmds yett not knowing whether the es- 
tate will bear it att present; my will is 
that the resedue remaine in the whole stocke 
and that every one of my four sons viz 
AUexander Standish Myles Standish Josias 
Standish and Charles Standish may have 
forty potmds appeec if not that they may 
have proportionable to ye remaining pte 
bee it more or less. 

*'5. My will is that my eldest son AUex- 
ander shall have a double share in land. 

''6. My will is that soe long as they live 
single that the whole bee in ptenership be- 
twixt them. 

*7. I doe ordaine and make my dearly 
beloved wife Barbara Standish AUexander 
Standish Myles Standish and Josias Stan- 
dish joint Executors of this my last will 
& testament. 

**8. I doe by this my will make and 
appoint my loveing frinds Mr. Timothy 
Hatherley and Cap^ . James Cudworth su- 
pervissors of this my last will and that they 
wil be pleased to doe the office of christian 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 195 

love to be healpfull to my poor wife and 
children by theire christian counsell and 
advisse and if any difference should arise 
which I hope will not, my will is that my 
said supervissors shall determine the same, 
and that they see that my poor wife shall 
have as comfortable maintainance as my 
poor state will beare the whole time of her 
life which if you my loveing frinds please 
to doe though neither they nor I shall be 
able to recompenc, I doe not doubt but the 
Lord will; 

*'By me Myles Standish further my will 
is that Marcye Robinson whom I tenderly 
love for her Grandfathers sacke shall have 
three pounds in something to goe fon\''ard 
for her two years after my decease which 
my will is my overseers shall see performed. 

"Further my will is that my servant 
John Irish Jun'" have forty shillings more 
than his covenant which will appeer upon 
the Towne Book alwaies provided that he 
continew till the time he covenanted bee 
expired in the service of my Executors or 
of any of them with theire joint concert. 

By me 
March 7 1655 Myles Standish. 

"9. I give unto my son & heire aparent 
Allexander Standish all my lands as heire 
apparrent by lawfull decent in Ormstick 
Borsconge Wrightington Maudsley New- 
burrow Crawston and in the Isle of Man 



196 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

and given to mee as right heire by lawful 
decent but sumiptuously detained from me 
my great Grandfather being a 2cond or younger 
brother from the house of Standish of Stan- 
dish. 
March 7 1655. By mee 

Myles Standish. 

Witnessed by mee — James Cud worth." 

Plymouth Colony Records, Book of 
Wills, vol. 2d, pages 37, 38. 

It may be remarked that Captain James 
Cud worth of Scituate was alive in 1667. 

There was a Captain James Cudworth 
in the war of 1675 against King Philip; 
was this the same Captain Cudworth? Or 
was this second Captain the son of the first? 
Marcye Robinson mentioned in the will 
was the daughter of Isaac, son of Rev. John 
Robinson of Leyden. She was born 4th 
Jtdy, 1647, and received baptism from Rev. 
Mr. Lothrop of Barnstable. 



CHAPTER XXII 
STANDISH'S RELIGION 

It was brought out during the discussions 
about the location of Standish's grave, that 
some people held that Standish was not 
buried in the cemetery of the Pilgrims be- 
cause he was a Roman Catholic. This cer- 
tainly was a strange objection. 

At least one eulogist of the Pilgrims, 
speaking of their tolerance, said that the 
kindness shown to Standish was a proof 
of their broad-mindedness, for that Standish 
was a Roman Catholic. Where did these 
people get this idea about Standish 's religion? 
My impression is that the idea arose from the 
investigations made in the nineteenth century 
about the property mentioned in Standish's 
will as having been "surruptuously" kept 
from him. When the investigators in the 
first half of the nineteenth century discovered 
that the Standishes of Standish were Roman 
Catholics in the Captain's time, they 
concluded that he too was a Roman 
Catholic. 

The persons making the objection about 
his burial place very evidently knew nothing 
of the Captain's will, and his desire to be 



198 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

buried with Lora and Mary Standish. There 
never was the least evidence, there is not now, 
and I feel that there never can be any, to 
show that Standish was a Roman Catholic 
during his life with the Pilgrims, or at his 
death. He may have sprung from a family 
that was Roman Catholic, but that will 
prove nothing as to his own beliefs when he 
grew up. I am, directly, only concerned 
about the Captain's grave. That question 
is altogether apart from his religion. He 
asked to be buried with his children. He 
was "honorably" buried with them. His 
grave was pointed out by tradition. The 
history of the town proves our contention 
about the graves. Still, I think a few words 
not inopportune on his religious views. 

The compact of the Mayflower was 
signed by Standish. This compact reads: 
"We whose names are underwritten, have 
undertaken for the glory of God and ad- 
vancement of the christian faith and the 
honor of our king and cotintry, a voyage to 
plant the first colony in northern Virginia," 
etc. At that time, so far as the Pilgrims 
knew, Plymouth was within the limits of 
northern Virginia. It was "in November 
1620, while the Mayflower was on her passage 
that by new letters patent the northern 
company was changed to the President and 
Council of New England, or the Plymouth 
Company." 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 199 

Can anyone believe that Standish would 
have come to advance the Christian religion, 
according to the ideas of the Pilgrims, if 
he had been a Roman Catholic? 

Edward Winslow and others say that 
Standish came tinder the influence of the 
Rev. John Robinson and his congregation 
in Ley den before the Pilgrims came here, 
and, of course, it is evident that he did. 

In 1632 he signed the promise to remove 
his family to Plymouth in the winter time, 
that they might the better repair to the 
worship of God. His children were brought 
up in the Pilgrim church. The Pilgrims were 
most avowedly opposed to the Roman Church. 
The religious atmosphere of the Pilgrims 
would not have been congenial to Standish, 
had be been a Roman Catholic. He never 
could have any of the religious offices of his 
own church during his life with them. The 
Pilgrims came, that among their blessings 
and their hardships they might have liberty 
of conscience. 

It is well to keep in mind that the history 
of Duxbury shows that church membership 
was a "necessary qualification" for a freeman 
of the town until 1664; this was eight years 
after Standish's death. By degrees the people 
became more tolerant. There were Quakers 
in town in 1660, for there is a record showing 
that some Quakers were fined that year. 
Others may have had their own religious 



200 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

beliefs, not all of these agreeing with the beliefs 
of the general body of townsmen. The qualifi- 
cation of church membership for the freemen 
was entirely abrogated in 1686. I would 
refer to Mr. Winsor's History of Duxbury 
on this point. 

Standish's name is entered in 1646 as 
a freeman of Duxbury. He was an officer 
of the Colony for many years. His position 
as military leader of the colonists would 
prove that his lot was all in all with the 
Pilgrims. Living and worshipping with them, 
fighting for them and risking his life for their 
welfare, his children and theirs intermarrying, 
would he have refused to be buried with them? 
Would he prefer burial on his farm, or some 
other's farm, or on the common lands, rather 
than in the cemetery with the loved friends and 
trusted companions of his life? He could 
not be buried in what Roman Catholics 
call "consecrated ground," for according to 
their views there was no one to consecrate it. 

In 1643 the towns of Plymouth, Duxbury, 
and Marshfield, formed a military company 
with Standish as Captain. The fourteenth 
article of the constitution of this company 
was: '^That no one be admitted except he 
takes the oath of fidelity." This meant 
fidelity to the Colony. The thirteenth article 
reads, that upon the death of any member 
"the company upon warning shall come to- 
gether with their arms and inter his corpse 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 201 

as a soldier and according to his place and 
quallytye." Can anyone conceive that a 
Roman Catholic wo\ild have taken the oath 
of a freeman, and the oath of loyalty of this 
military company? The whole genius of the 
Pilgrim movement was religiously and politic- 
ally at variance with the Roman Church. Who 
believes that Standish would have required 
from the members of the military company an 
oath which he would not be willing to take him- 
self? We may be certain this military com- 
pany attended his fimeral. 

Among the Captain's books, the list 
of which was made by his widow, were the 
following : — 

Three old Bibles. 

One Testament. 

One Psalm Book. 

Calvin's Institutions. 

Preston's Sermons. 

Burrough's Christian Contentment. 

Gospel Conversation. 

Passions of the Mind. 

Burrough's Earthly Mindedness. 

Ball on Faith. 

Dodd on the Lord's Supper. 

Sparks against Heresy. 

Davenport's Apology. 

A Reply to Dr. Cotton on Baptism. 

Nature and Grace in Conflict. 

Commentary on James Ball's Catechism. 

Burrough's Discovery. 



202 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

Brinsley's Watch. 

Dr. Hales^ Works, 
and several books on medicine, law, artillery, 
history, and literature, including Homer, 
Caesar, etc., etc. 

Not a single Roman Catholic book among 
them all! 

Standish was unquestionably a man of 
strong passions. It may be that he never 
fully joined any church as a communicant 
at the Lord's Table, for we all know men, 
devout men, who are members of our churches, 
but who do not feel themselves, for some 
reason, drawn to the Lord's Supper. Stan- 
dish having to fight men, to kill men, as 
he did at Wessagusset and elsewhere, like 
many another soldier, may have felt that 
his profession ought to exclude him from 
some of the more intimate and sacred privi- 
leges of church members. Indeed, it may 
be that, although heartily in sympathy with 
the Pilgrims in their religious beliefs, and 
business and political aims, he was not in 
full accord on all points of doctrine, but there 
is no proof of this — none at all. He was a 
Protestant, that is more than clear. He, as 
a magistrate, married people, and as a Roman 
Catholic he could not have done so, for the 
Roman Church says marriage is a Sacrament, 
and only the duly ordained clergy of the Roman 
Church can administer Roman Sacraments. 
Perhaps some one may say, the Roman 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 203 

Church allows a layman to confer Baptism, 
etc., in case of necessity, and therefore even 
as a Roman Catholic, Standish might have 
officiated at marriages. I answer, — Certainly 
not, for there was no necessity that he should 
officiate, and especially for Protestants, as 
there were many men of their own belief 
capable of officiating for them. 

In my opinion it is not at all unlikely 
that others of the Leyden congregation of 
the Rev. John Robinson may have been born 
of Roman Catholic parents, and that some 
such may have been among both Pilgrims 
and Puritans. We have no such means of 
knowing about them as we have of knowing 
about Standish. It was an age of changes 
in religious beliefs. 

The objection that because Standish 
was not elected or appointed one of the Com- 
missioners of the Plymouth Colony to act 
with the Commissioners from the other three 
New England Colonies in 1643, therefore he 
was a Roman Catholic, or at least not a 
member of the church in Plymouth, or Dux- 
bury, is as puerile an objection as could be 
offered. Standish was especially engaged and 
busy in his work as the military leader of the 
Plymouth Colony, and it was not likely 
that he would be elected, or chosen, as a 
Commissioner from Plymouth, when his ab- 
sence at the meetings of the Commissioners 
might be a serious detriment to the colonists. 



204 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

The four Colonies represented were Con- 
necticut, New Haven, Plymouth and Mass- 
achusetts Bay. 

In fine, he asked to be buried with his 
children, who were Protestants. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

It may be of interest to give a few ex- 
tracts from letters received by the writer. 

The Hon. Charles T. Davis of Plymouth, 
Mass., wrote to me on the 30th September, 
1892:— 

"E. J. V. Huiginn, 
Dear Sir: — 

I cannot resist the temptation to thank 
you for the close, logical and conclusive 
argimient you were kind enough to send me 
concerning the location of Standish's grave. 
I fear that you mistook one calling at least. 
Your argument is unanswerable, and must set 
at rest all doubts concerning his resting place. 

I am sorry my friend, Mrs. Austin, 
ventured to suggest such paltry, cavilling and 
ignorant doubts upon the subject. . . . 

Yrs very truly, 

CHAS. T. DAVIS." 

From Myles Standish, Esq., New York. 
'The Century 

7 West Forty-third St., 
New York, May 30th, 1891. 
My Dear Sir: — 

I have read with great pleasure and 
interest your letter to the Boston Herald 
relative to the 'Grave of Myles Standish.' 

• • • 

There is no doubt in my mind as to the 



206 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

correctness of your conclusions, and I regard 
the question of the location of the grave of 
Standish as permanently settled. . . . 
Very truly yours, 

M. STANDISH." 

Again on the 5th December, 1892, the 
same Mr. Standish says that the evidence 
"convinced me of the identity of the bodies 
discovered." 

Mr. Standish sent me yet another letter: 
"Paris, Jan. 8th, 1893. 
Rev. E. J. V. Huiginn, 
My Dear Sir: — 

Thanks for your letter and pamphlet 
which were duly received. The letter I 
have read with riiuch care, and must con- 
gratulate you upon the very clear and con- 
clusive presentation of all the evidence, 
documentary and traditional, in the matter. 
The objections to your conclusions are trivial, 
and not based upon any special study of the 
subject. 

Certainly the objections of the author 
of 'Standish of Standish' are not worth the 
notice you have given them. 

Yours very truly, 

M. STANDISH." 

Captain Edward Baker, of North Dux- 
bury, a former officer in the United States 
Navy, and a descendant of old Pilgrim families, 
wrote to me on the 27th Sept., 1893: — 

"I was impressed beyond expression by 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 207 

your successful research, and instead of my 
impression fading it continually grows stronger, 
and having proved beyond a reasonable 
doubt where lies the body of Standish, with 
the durable memorial you memorize yourself 
as well as him." 

Captain Baker had already written me 
on the 8th September, 1892, when speaking 
of the Pilgrims and their relation to the 
foimding of this Republic, he said: — 

"What more interesting feature concern- 
ing its origin is before the World (I say 
world, 'tis not simply a Duxbury interest,) 
than memorializing and marking the resting 
place of this magnificent man, who died, as it 
were, at the nation's birth in the wilderness — 
soon to 'blossom like the rose.' " 

Letter from Miss Lucia A. Bradford 
dated Duxbury, May 28th, 1892. 
''Dear Mr. Huiginn, 

I thank you for starting the fund for a 
monument to Myles Standish, and I wish 
to be a contributor to it to the amount of 
twenty-five dollars. 

Yours with much regard, 

L. A. BRADFORD." 

Mr. Ariel Standish Thurston of Elmira, 
N.Y., wrote: — 

"Dec. 17, '92. 
"Dear Sir:— 

I have read the pamphlet you were so 
kind as to send me, and I am of opinion that 



208 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

you have proved very satisfactorily that the 
graves of Standish and his daughters have 
been found." 

I have received letters in a similar 
strain from ''people from everywhere" as 
I might say. 



#1 
$} 

w 
■11 



CHAPTER XXIV 

The list of contributors to the expense 
of placing the boulders and guns at the 
burial place of Standish and his children, 
contains many prominent descendants of 
the Captain, who were thoroughly satisfied 
with the proofs submitted that Standish's 
burial place was at last known. 

When the evidence had all been published 
and duly weighed, it was the unanimous 
feeling of a meeting of the citizens of Dux- 
bury and others interested, held in August, 
1892, that some permanent memorial should 
be placed to mark the Standish burial place. 
Accordingly the following committee was 
elected to place a suitable memorial in the 
cemetery and to raise ftmds to meet the 
expense : — 

Captain Edward Baker, North Dux- 
bury; Walter J. Graves, Duxbury (now Dr. 
Walter J. Graves, of Dorchester); E. J. V. 
Huiginn, Duxbury; John H. Parks, Island 
Creek, Duxbury; George Lloyd Winsor, Dux- 
bury, and William J. Wright, Duxbury. 

These gentlemen had the present me- 
morial placed at the graves. The Navy Depart- 
ment of Washington gave us the guns and 
empty shell. Mr. Graves acted as Treasurer 
of the Committee. I think it proper to 
include his report. 



210 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 
TREASURER'S REPORT OF 

List of Subscribers to mark the Graves of 

Myles Standish, Lora Standish, and 
Mary Standish. 

George L. Winsor $5 .00 

Charles L. Gaines 1 . 00 

James Myles Standish 10.00 

Mrs. Russell Sage (New York) .... 10 . 00 

Collected by J. M. Standish 4.00 

Walter J. Graves 11 .00 

Miss Lucia A. Bradford 25 . 00 

Mrs. A. Tileston 1 .00 

Mr. and Mrs. F. B. Knapp 5 .00 

A. E. Green 2.00 

Miss Abbie Turner 1 .00 

W. T. Gross 5.00 

Per Miss Ellen L. Sampson 17 . 00 

William J. Wright 32.45 

John H. Parks 30.00 

Myles Standish (New York) 30 . 00 

J. H. Stickney (Baltimore) 10 . 00 

William A. Rust 10.00 

Charles A. Vialle 5 .00 

O.H.Dana 10.00 

J.W.Wood 2.00 

Nelson Stockwell 1 .00 

A. S. Waterman 1 .00 

E. Alden 1.00 

F. W. Hatch 1.00 

Elisha Peterson .50 

George H. Steams 1 . 00 

W. J. Burgess 1 .00 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 



211 



Marsh & Gardner 5 .00 

L. B. Sherman 1 . 00 

Thomas Lockwopd 5 .00 

Miss E. W. Sears 1 .00 

Dr. Myles Standish 25 .00 

Captain George C. Cushman 10 . 00 

Henry F. Coe 5.00 

Hon. Elijah A. Morse, M.C 25 . 00 

Hon. Ariel Standish Thurston, 

(Elmira, N.Y.) 5.00 

Martin Brimmer 10.00 

J. Montgomery Sears 10.00 

Mrs. L. M. Cobb .25 

M. P. Standish 5.00 

''Hingham" 1.10 

Thomas Alden 1 .00 

S. S. Boylston .50 

George E. Baker 1.00 

George E. Belknap 1 .00 

Charles Boylston .50 

J. D.Randall 1.00 

Edward Baker 1 .00 

Walter W. Estes .50 

E. C. Estes SO 

Dr. S.Henry 1.00 

George M. Baker 1 .00 

E. H. Chandler 1 00 

George Bradford 1-00 

"Cash" 1.00 

E. J. V. Huiginn 10.00 

E. J. Sweetser 100 

Total $364.30 



212 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 
EXPENDITURES 

Treasurer. Postal cards soliciting 

subscriptions $0 . 85 

P. O'Riordan, hauling guns, etc., 

from Navy Yard 25 .00 

Old Colony R.R. Co. Freight on 

guns, etc 6 . 00 

H. Peterson, hauling guns to ceme- 
tery 22.00 

D. W. Bowker, hatiling and marking 

boulders 74. 80 

H. Peterson, hauling small boulders 

to cemetery 4 . 00 

H. B. Chandler, work on wall, 

placing gtms, etc 225 .00 

Chains 3 .00 

Freight on twelve shell 3 . 00 

Telephoning and postage .65 

Total $364.30 

WALTER J. GRAVES, 
Dec. 4th, 1893. Treasurer of Committee, 



It was through the kind offices of the 
Hon. Elijah A. Morse, M.C., Canton, Mass., 
that the Navy Department of the United 
States gave us the use of some guns to set 
in place at the burial place of Standish. 
The following letters are self-explanatory. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 213 

'^Bureau of Ordnance, 
Navy Department 
Washington, Sept. 26, 1892. 
Hon. Elijah A. Morse, 

Canton, Mass. 
Sin- 
Referring to your letter of the 14th inst: — 
The Bureau has directed the Boston 
Navy Yard to loan to Mr. E. J. V. Huiginn 
four (4) 32 pounder guns and twelve (12) 
Vlll-inch empty shell, for the purpose of 
marking the burial place of Myles Standish, 
as therein requested. 

Mr. Huiginn has been informed of the 
Bureau's action. 

Respectfully, 

WM. M FOLGER, 
Chief of Bureau.'^ 
Second letter. 

5134 
'^Subject: Loan of guns, etc. 

Bureau of Ordnance 
Navy Department 
Washington City, Sept. 26th, 1892. 
In reply to No. 6285 
Mr. E. J. V. Huiginn, 

Duxbury, Mass. 
Sir: — 

At the request of Hon. Elijah A. Morse, 
M.C., the Bureau has directed the Boston 
Navy Yard to loan you four (4) 32-potmder 
guns, of 57 cwt. each, and twelve (12) VIII- 



214 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 

inch empty shell, for the purpose of marking 
the grave of Myles Standish. 

These must be removed from the Yard 
without expense to the Government, and you 
will be required to give a receipt for them, 
specifying that they will be returned when 
called for. 

You should communicate with the Com- 
mandant of the Boston Navy Yard in regard 
to their shipment. 

Respectfully, 

WM. M. FOLGER, 
Chief of Bureau.'* 
Notes 

In Salem, Mass., in 1636, there is a 
James Standish entered as a proprietor. 
His name is also spelled Standishe and 
Standige, but I have found Captain Myles 
Standish's name also spelled Standige in 
the Old Colony Records. This James of 
Salem is enrolled as a freeman of Salem 
on the 13th May, 1640, and he is recorded 
as a juryman in 1641. Later in 1642, he is 
mentioned as being in Lynn. 

Who was this James Standish? Was 
he related to the Captain? He could not 
have been a son of the Captain by his first 
wife, for there is no such record, and if he 
were, as he was older than Alexander Stan- 
dish, then he would have been the legal heir 
to all Standish's hereditary estates. Who 
was he? 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 215 

There is a Thomas Standish of Wethers- 
field, Connecticut, who is mentioned as having 
died on the 5th December, 1692, aged about 
eighty years. Who was he? 

If the picture of Standish which we 
reproduce is genuine it must be admitted 
that the dates on the picture, if correct, 
tmsettle all theories about Standish' s age. 
The picture apparently claims to have been 
painted in 1625, when Standish was in Eng- 
land, the date 1625 being in the upper left- 
hand comer. In the same comer it is stated 
that Standish is 36 years of age, or is it 56? 
If it is 36 years, then Standish was bom in 
1589, and could not have received a Com- 
mission from Queen Elizabeth, who died in 
1603. If the figures for Standish's age are 
56, then he was bom in 1569, and could have 
received his commission in Elizabeth's time. 
If he were bom in 1569, he would have been 
87 years of age at his death. Perhaps the 
statement that he was 'Very ancient" at 
his death would be better borne out by the 
figures 56. Perhaps it was some other *' M. 
Standish." 

I almost forgot to say that I have 
a letter from Mr. Justin Winsor in which 
he says the location of Standish's grave 
depends on the location of the church in 
which the first three ministers preached. 
This point has been determined. 



216 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 



STANDISH»S GRAVE 

Before 

I stood beside the silent resting place 

Of him, the bravest of New England's dead; 

No monument was there, no slab to trace 

His valor, or his worth, to tell whose bed 

Of long deep sleep lay there beneath my tread. 

The children of his love were there; he slept 
With them within the nameless, darkened grave. 
Beside their graves how often had he wept, 
And heard the distant booming of the wave, 
And round the Httle church the sad winds ravel 

A grateful people honors all its brave. 
Its fathers and the guardians of its weal, 
The noble sons who died its life to save 
And shed their blood upon the foeman's steel, 
In witness of their truth, their love, their zeal. 

But thou, the bravest of New England's sons, 

Dost rest beside thy children here unknown! 

Thou shouldst have marked the graves of thy loved ones, 

New England, — or tell, if thy love has flown, 

And thou, in death, thy Standish wouldst disown? 

E. J, V, H. 



AND OTHER PILGRIMS 217 



A VISIT FROM STANDISH 

After 

I was sitting in my chamber 
In the silence of the night, 
Weaving fancies and unweaving, 
When a visitor bedight 
In a buckram suit made entry, 
And stood still as any sentry. 

Thus he spoke to me surmising 
Who he was and whence he came, 
"Pardon, Sir, this rudish conduct, 
Standish M. they call my name, 
I've just come from o'er the border, 
Pray excuse my robe's disorder. 

"I was walking out with Pluto, — 
You recall him I daresay, — 
This p.m., Sir, when he told me 
That a man had called today. 
Who from Duxbury had traveled 
And this tale to him unraveled. 



218 THE GRAVES OF MYLES STANDISH 



"That my Duxbury fellow-townsmen 
Cared so little for my dust 
That they left unfenced the graveyard 
Where I rested, — 'twasn't just, — 
Had I known it, I'd have made *em 
Rue it, yes. Sir, I'd have flayed *em! 

"That not even was a token 
Placed beside the lonely bed 
Where I, Standish Myles of Standish, 
Mouldered neath their cattle's tread! — 
"Twas an oversight?' — 'Twas worse. Sir, 
'Twas enough to make one curse. Sir! 

"That the graves of little Standish 
And his loved ones, Alden's too, 
Sweet Priscilla's, — were forgotten, 
Where we rested no one knew, 
Till you came and dug me up. Sir, 
And I couldn't stay to sup. Sir. 

"But at once I've come to see you. 
And to thank you face to face; 
We'll be aU so pleased to know you 
When you reach our Httle place; 
Wife and babes '11 gladly greet you, 
Ta, ta! happy. Sir, to meet you!" 

E. /. V. H. 



H 77 78 ■* 



^^ 



<b^ 



^0 



6' 







40 















■c^ 






V 



\^<^' »,• ': ^'^.n^^" -V ■ '•^'-'^ 






.^^ 



6^: 



v-^ 



vP, 







o^\-- 



^_ 



"l^ o '^ " <= ^ "^ 






.^o 



,0 






V 



^ 












•*, 



-^.^^^ 



y < -' 



<r' 



.^' 



V 




j"». 




^"-^^^ :^^^. %.^^^ :*»'•: \^.^' 









m 






^ r. O " ^ * <^ 







o V^ 



o «* o 



.0 









i;;. 




JAN "78 



'C"!^ N. MANCHESTER. 
„"l-'> iNniANA 



